Neighbors ever ask you to borrow the strangest things?

It wasn’t a neighbor, but a friend asked if he could borrow a condom once. I didn’t have any at the time, but given the nature of a condom, I’m fairly certain that if I had one to give I wouldn’t have wanted it back after use.

A saxophone. Haven’t seen (or heard) it for a few months.

But seriously? My brother did have to ask my neighbor to borrow his car after his rental car got stolen. He came out to go to my wedding and the car was gone! So, the neighbor came to his rescue.

The oddest thing I ever lent to a neighbor was a recliner. But it was for good reason. Her husband was dying of cancer and couldn’t lay down anymore, so she needed a way to make him more comfortable. I happily lent it to her and it was returned to me 6 weeks later, after he died. She had it cleaned so I wouldn’t feel creepy about getting it back.

@scamp: great! good move. you’re a great neighbor!

@charliecompany34 Thanks, but it was nothing, really. He had been a great neighbor and friend for many years.

@scamp: i asked my next-door neighbor for a piece of her grapevine. she died the next week. renters moved in some time later and had the adjoining branches all cut back, cutting off my supply. i was inconsolable for a minute but i got over it.

@charliecompany34 How sad… I’m so sorry.

A neighbor asked if she could cut a few of the Birds of Paradise we had growing under the front window. She was so thrilled when I said yes that I thought I wouldn’t tell her how much I hated them and how glad I was to get rid of them. I just told her to take all she wanted, and she cut half a dozen and went away beaming.

@Jeruba sounds like a win-win situation!

Unfortunately I didn’t think to invite her back every week until the darned unkillable thing was gone. She was from the wider neighborhood, and I didn’t know her.

Wider neighborhood???

@scamp—yes, not the folks right close by, in our block, whom I’d know by sight and maybe also by name, but close enough to happen by while out for a walk. We range a few blocks when we go for a walk, too, and I’d consider anything in walking distance the wider neighborhood, even though I mightn’t call folks two or three streets away my neighbors.

Turned out the cat’s neighborhood was much wider than ours, but that’s another topic.

I can’t really say that it is borrowing as I will never get it back, but a neighbor coveted my century plant so I gave her one of its pups. It rapidly grew to an amazing size in her yard and then abruptly died and rotted. She insisted I take her grapefruit tree in return. It is still happily producing leaves but nothing else in my yard.

I have shared many other plant cuttings, pups, seeds and bulbs of all sorts. I have gotten many others in return. It is just something gardeners do.

Otherwise I have lent the usual ladders, chain saws, chunks of my rosemary bushes, books, and children, all of which have come back in good or better shape except for the rosemary. My neighbors discovered how useful it is when roasting chicken but seem to have black thumbs in terms of growing their own.

Once I had to borrow electricity from my neighbor. The power company turned off our power an hour before my husband was to have a treatment from the visiting nurse so I got permission to run an extension cord to the next house.

I also had to repel a persistent lady who wanted to give me yard art. I have a statue of Saint Francis in my yard and she was so thrilled to see it that she wanted to give me several other saints and religious figures. I really only want Saint Francis there but could only get rid of her by accepting a Virgin Mary for the backyard. I use her to mark where the drain cleanout is.

As far as animals go, we have never lent any out, but have “borrowed” several from one particular neighbor that produces cats indiscriminantly. We are not the only ones in the neighborhood who have “benefited” from this practice but we are the only ones who have been asked to return any of the cats. We had had him for several years and had paid quite a bit in vet bills, so when I asked to be reimbursed they decided they didn’t really want the cat back.

And once my neighbor across the street came over and wanted me to accept his color printer as a gift. He had purchased a new one and just decided we needed his old one.