Over the Fence~ Dryers, Chicken Soup & Park Benches

"Love your neighbor as yourself; 
but don't take down the fence."~Carl Sandburg

The quintessential chain linked fence...

Chain link fences separated the yards 

in the neighborhood I grew up in.  

These marvels of engineering worked 
like a webbed ladder for 

tiny toes to grab on to as children clamored over the top to go play in each other's backyards.  

Neighbors smiled and waved to each other over these "chest high" fences, drooled at the smell of their neighbor's steaks cookin' on the grill and passed cups of sugar to the cook next door.  Chain link fences did nothing to create privacy, they simply marked the property line and kept the dog at home. 

Today we have tall, solid, cedar stained fences that keep the dog in and the neighbors out.  So it was refreshing when, a few days ago, my neighbor and I breached the privacy fence and entered each others worlds. 

A container of soup for Kate...

After 23 years of faithful service to our family, our clothes dryer died.  When my neighbor, Beth, heard about it, she called to tell me, "Help yourself to our dryer...come on down, the door's unlocked."  While using her dryer, I discovered that Beth's daughter, Kate, was sick with strep throat.  Since I had a pot of Dana Pugh's "Feel Better" Chicken Noodle Soup on the stove, I took some down to Kate to sooth her scratchy throat.    

You never know when your dryer will go on the blink or your neighbor might need a little comfort food, so I thought I'd share Dana's "oh, so easy"  recipe with you... it's yummy!

Dana's "Feel Better" Chicken Noodle Soup

1 cup sliced carrots

1 cup diced celery

1 cup diced onion

2 Tbl. butter

Large carton of chicken broth

1 small bag of egg noodles

2 Chicken breasts cooked and diced (or use meat from a rotisserie chicken)

1 can cream of chicken soup

salt and pepper

Saute celery and onion in butter until soft.  Add carrots, noodles and broth and simmer until carrots and noodles are tender (about 10 minutes).  Add chicken and soup, salt and pepper.

Dana's "Feel Better" Chicken Noodle Soup

See how some folks in Atlanta 

are reaching out to love their neighbors:  

Benched from Brandon McCormick on Vimeo.