3 ms·

Very similar experience with my mid-70’s neighbor. I talked him down off the ladder more times than I can count. Sometimes he even had a glass of bourbon in o

• jacquesm 5y ago
  I really loved that guy. He died a few years ago after a series of strokes. He had worked his whole life in a paper factory at a time when 'personal protection' had entirely different connotations and vats with acid were large and open and real men bleached the paper for the cardboard with utter disregard for their own health. https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kappa_Triton https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kappa_Triton So I can see some of what made him do these things (with alarming regularity I might add). His name was Jakob, which is a traditional Dutch version of my own and right after I moved there we hit it off as if we'd known each other for years, I still don't know why. When the front gable of his house became too dangerous the whole neighborhood chipped in with materials and work and we built him a new front for his house for a ridiculously low budget, which was both a fun project and made everybody on the street that much closer to each other. I'd bet that if we could have gotten them together your neighbor and my neighbor would be able to talk for hours :) These old-timers are interesting, they all have their stories and it is definitely worth making time for them.