Give yourselves a hand
I read Sherry Mundt's recent My Turn column and pride filled my heart. She and her daughter and best friend were delivering hay recently, and the load and the trailer decided to separate at the Highway 95/Honeysuckle intersection.
Her column described in detail how many people went out of their way to help clean up the load and get the three of them back on their way, not to mention ensuring the intersection blockage would be short lived.
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Yep - North Idahoans are full of compassion and a helpful spirit.
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I have observed similar random acts of kindness in the area, and as a country boy, have been around such all my life.
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In the spirit of barn raising, neighbors, family and friends all pitched in when the chips were down for anyone, and I'm glad to see that ethic is alive and well.
Branding and rounding up cattle in general was always a community affair. It was also a great way to catch up with your neighbors in the age before cell phones made face-to-face not so important.
I don't know how many times I would be driving to town, only to see someone else's cattle or horses hoofing it down the road, no doubt due to an open gate or a neglected fence.
In such situations, the rounding up and the securing of the animals took less than a half hour.
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Not too much of an inconvenience in the grand scheme of things.
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In this day and age of handheld technology, it is far too easy to detach from the here and now. But people in North Idaho have a genuine concern for others, and that's great to see.
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I grew up with a lesson that I observed over and over again: Help out all you can, because you never know when you'll be the one in need.
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And granted - these are needy times. The economy has refused to cooperate with our wallets for years. Great jobs are few and far between. Many in our region struggle to make ends meet.
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But we all seem to empathize when the unfortunate happens.
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Maybe part of it is that we are just predisposed to rendering aid when we see a need. Maybe some of us are just glad it's not us in that situation, and offering a hand up just makes us feel better about our lot, and our lives in general. Maybe we just like making someone's day.
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At any rate, it's nice to see.
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Far too often in places far away from North Idaho, I have witnessed a dire need go unfulfilled, mostly because people are too preoccupied with their own lives to stop for a minute and see if they can be of service.
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Maybe they have been ingrained not to get involved. Maybe they are proof that compassion is not hereditary.
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Maybe people like that should steer clear of the panhandle.
Jerry Hitchcock is a copy editor for The Press. He can be reached at 64-8176, Ext. 2017, or via email at jhitchcock@cdapress.com.