Good Fences Make Good Neighbors

Across the Fence #576


There’s been a lot of talk in the news lately about building fences and walls. Is a fence or wall between neighbors good or bad? I guess the first thing we need to ask is, “Why do we need the fence or wall?”

“Mending Wall” is one of Robert Frosts’ most quoted poems. He says, “Before I built a wall I’d ask to know, what I was walling in or walling out…”

When I think of the title of this column, “Across the Fence,” I think of fences in a positive way. It was where neighbors on both sides of the fence met and talked. The main reason for fences on the farm was not to fence your neighbor out, just his cows, and to keep your cows from straying onto his land. There’s nothing like a herd of cows, trampling and eating their way through a cornfield, to add a bit of tension between neighbors! Heaven forbid if they got in your tobacco field. If you think feral cats are at risk of being shot, a herd of dairy cows trampling my father’s tobacco field would have brought out the heavy artillery! Good fences do make good neighbors, and keep stray critters from being harmed too.
  
When we lived in Madison there were also fences. Most fences and walls in cities are to keep dogs or kids from getting into traffic or wandering off! That type of fence is also used for containment, it’s just not cows that are being contained. 

It helps to keep your cows from straying onto his land.. There’s nothing like a herd of cows, trampling and eating their way through a cornfield, to add a bit of tension between neighbors! Heaven forbid if they got in your tobacco field. If you think feral cats are at risk of being shot, a herd of dairy cows trampling my father’s tobacco field would have brought out the heavy artillery! Good fences do make good neighbors, and keep stray critters from being harmed too. 

Our neighbors on one side had a wire fence. It was used to keep their dog in their yard. The dog was long gone, but the fence was still there. Now It was just used to stand next to and talk across when we met in the back yard. Just like old times… minus the tractors! Although if I’d have had a riding lawn mower, a John Deere mower of course, I’d have felt right at home.  

Other people put up fences and walls to keep people out and off their property. This is my space and you’re not entering unless I invite you! No Trespassing! The neighbors who lived behind us had that type of fence. They had a lot of parties and company in their back yard, where they had a basketball hoop and a hot tub. We weren’t invited! But that’s OK, I’m not much of a party animal, and climbing into a hot tub with other people is not high on my list of “things to do!”

We had a lot of trees, brush, and vines along the back of our yard, and I let them grow thick in the summer. I guess letting nature take its course is my own way of walling out or walling in. It gave us a little backyard privacy in the middle of a city. It also gave a little protection and hiding places for all my wildlife critter friends! I think most of my neighbors would have liked to fence them out. Even I have to admit, they were be a nuisance and destructive at times. 

At one time the area where we lived was an apple orchard on the southwest edge of Madison. This was country and the critters and birds had free reign over the area. Today the city stretches miles beyond where our neighborhood was and the busy, crowded Beltline was only a couple blocks from us. That apple orchard is now full of houses, and much of the land that was home to the critters is now cemented over with highways and sidewalks. They were there first and people invaded their homes and confiscated their land. Is it any wonder the critters were a little ticked off about it and liked to make a meal of the gardens and flowers!? Who can blame them?

Larger animals, like deer, that used to call the area home, are now gone… forced out by fences, walls, and people. I don’t think that’s what Robert Frost had in mind when he said, “Good fences make good neighbors.”

I’m not advocating tearing down all fences! Some fences are needed.

G. K. Chesterton wrote, “Before you take down the fences, ask why they were put up in the first place.”

If you don’t want the neighbor’s cows in your cornfield, you better not tear down the line fence. If you don’t want the neighbors joining you in your hot tub, you better keep that fence up too.

I like to think of a fence as a barrier you can still see through or over. Most are user friendly. A wall is more imposing and blocks the view and the interaction between people.

There’s another kind of fence or wall that we don’t talk about. I once heard a quote that “Fear is the highest fence.” Politicians build a lot of those fences to scare us into following their lead. I think a lot of “fear fences” have been built lately. Now there’s talk about building a wall around the United States to keep people out. I would ask, “Are we keeping others out, or imprisoning and isolating ourselves within?” 

As Robert Frost said, “good fences make good neighbors,” but I think the type of fence you erect and the reason for erecting it, will determine how your neighbors look at you.  There’s a place and purpose for fences and walls, but always be aware of why you’re building it. 

One last thing, if there were no fences, I wouldn’t have a name for this column.

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