Good fences make good neighbours, while screening ourselves off can't lead to good things, says a reader. Photo / Getty Images
Good fences make good neighbours, while screening ourselves off can't lead to good things, says a reader. Photo / Getty Images GettyImages-200365509-002.jpg
We lived in suburban Rotorua in the 1960s and 1970s and from the corner for over 200m south there was only one fence higher than a metre bounding
sections and across the road a similar story.
If Mum happened to be in town and it threatened rain our neighbour would jump the fence and get the washing in and poke it in the unlocked back door and of course Mum would do the same for Joyce if she was out.
We're often told that it ''takes a village to raise a child'', and while I'm not altogether in agreement with that, I see some merit in the idea.
Our lives were lived quite openly before friendly neighbours and as teenagers we were conscious that others could see our antics and this was a further measure of discipline that the village applied.
