My neighbor plays the trumpet

2024 Author: James Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 14:00

But twenty years ago, everything was different … We lived in houses that did not yet have the epoch-making name "Khrushchev". The houses formed a rectangle, inside which there was a courtyard, which seemed to us huge. In the summer it resembled a jungle - since then I have never seen such a green courtyard.

My grandfather was the first to go out into the courtyard of a new building and pick up a shovel. A dozen trees were his pride - birches, lilacs, elm, mountain ash … There were others who also planted their own tree or laid out a flower garden. And above the entrances - this is in Siberia - ivy and wild grapes grew. We made our first false "nails" from bright flowers with long petals, learning to be beautiful. The asphalt was lined with "classics", the boys played football and "small towns", and the grandfathers pitched "Belomor", sitting up late at night at the domino table.

But it was best in winter. One evening, the fathers went out into the yard and made a skating rink. Real, large, illuminated by lanterns. It was a signal: very soon - a holiday! And the yard was decorated with motley snowmen and hares, with coals for eyes and carrots for a nose. Everything is according to the rules. For two weeks, a performance was being prepared, in which there was a role for each baby (here mothers came into play). And finally - the premiere! On December 31, in the evening, the lights were lit and snowflakes and devils, who were performing a dance on skates, foxes and monkeys, Snegurochka and Santa Claus, poured into the courtyard. Proud fathers stealthily clinked glasses of sweaty glasses, carefully taken from home, mothers brushed off a tear and straightened a snowflake dress and a scarf on their throat. And the frost - real, strong, Siberian, has never been a hindrance. After all, the house is nearby, and you can always drop in and dress warmly!

When I am at home, I always go to my old courtyard, which now resembles a wasteland pitted with bunkers-cellars. There is no old domino table for a long time, and there is no one to play it now. My playmates grew up and went all over the world. And only the old elm under my former window whispers to me: "It was all." And my heart aches a little …

There will be no more neighbors like this in my life. No one will have them, since personal life is now an intimate matter, in no way concerning anyone. Or rather, not quite so. Rather, public, neighborly life simply did not become. But rented apartments, where there are "good, calm neighbors", simply go away! So, it does not matter to us who lives nearby?

Of course not. Thanks to the experience of friends, and my numerous moves, I managed to compose a portrait of ideal neighbors. So these are people who:

- deaf, therefore, they are not disturbed by music at one in the morning, when your roaming guests do not want to go home in any way;

- are partially blind, therefore, they do not see with whom and in what state you are returning home;

- extremely patient, so they do not pay absolutely no attention to the fact that your child plays basketball for an hour in the apartment. If this point does not work in any way, then let them be at least deaf;

- tactfulso they don’t ask directly what money you bought the car with;

- they must have a chronic runny nose, in order not to understand that it is your car that stinks worst of all in the yard;

- rich, so as not to shoot in a day fifty kopecks "to paycheck" or retirement. Or at least tactful, then they will do it once a week;

- to love animals, and until blue in the face, then there is a ghostly chance that at least a little of this love will fall on your dog. In the meantime, she only gets to wave the packages: "Get out, get out of here!" and complaints about the incessant howl in the apartment in your absence;

- they don't have to be young and beautiful women, and if they are, then let them at least be married! It is interesting that men, on the contrary, are always "for" being close to their own kind. However, in the case of young and beautiful women, they are even more in favor.

How can you achieve this ideal? Probably, this is impossible even in the largest metropolis. The situation is complicated by the fact that, most likely, the neighbors will not be alone, but at least four - above, below, right and left. And everyone will need something.

You can, of course, go to live in a cottage. Or at least a small house. However, in order that there are no neighbors nearby, the house must be in a deaf forest. Otherwise, your family is threatened with all of the above, adjusted for the distance: that you did not remove the snow in front of your house, and the neighbor's car stalled, that you can arrange barbecues in "nature" until 11 pm, and then your guests must become hoarse and numb at the same time that your child should play football on his own plot - otherwise, God forbid, he will fall into their neighbor's double-glazed window, that … Phew, that's enough.

What to do? To begin with, follow some simple rules of conduct. Always greet neighbors, even if you don't know their names. It is advisable to do this with a smile. You don't care, but the person is pleased. Try to keep quiet - and not just at night. If you are planning a noisy action - a holiday (or renovation), warn the neighbors about this and do not forget to say that you will try to keep everything as quiet as possible. If you borrow something from your neighbors (salt or money, it doesn't matter), return it on time. Just when she said.

Then there is a chance that the neighbors will treat you the same way. And at Christmas, you will definitely drop by your neighbors to give them a trinket, and they will pour you a glass of champagne. Who knows, maybe other neighbors will join you? And one day a skating rink will appear in your yard?