The Lexington advertiser. [volume] (Lexington, Miss.) 1904-1985, 1946-11-28
NEEDED-GOOD kEIGHBORs

4 was living in this country for two years before anyone
invited me to church."
who had moved into this section a few years ago and started
farming as one of our neighbors.
"It was a long time before anyone came to see me except the
politicians and the Watkins man."
Our friend continued, in presenting his own case history of
this county receives strangers.
This citizen presented a challenge that the people of our
county must find an answer for or admit to ourselves that we
are not as friendly as we would like to thinks ourselves to be.
"When l came to this county, l saw that it was good farming
country. l bought some land and settled down to farming it."
So he was no flyby night or schemer. He was a solid citizen
who wanted to take his place in the community and share ms
burden of the load-but nobody invited him and he and his family
were strangers in a foreign land, lonely because of the lack OF
good ~neighbors among his fellow men.
Today this man is one of the respected farmers in this part
of the country. He is a leader in his little community church
and takes an active part in the affairs of the school and CIVIC
projects.
81 am very happy about the success l have had farming down
here. l have bought more land and built a nice house. l now
have a tractor, milk several head of cows and have money in
the bank.
after a while l started gaining friends and am now proud
of my neighbOrhOod. / have many close friends among my
~neighbors now, but l sometimes think back and remember that
/ was living here for two years before they thought about try
ing to welcome me to their community or to come to visit with me"
When we heard that mans story we could not help but worry
about how many cases like that We might have in the county, 1t
does not take much indifference on the part of our citizens to
give the county a name of being an indifferent county.
The first impressions that a stranger gets when he comes
here to live or when he is just passing through is the impression
that stays with him. In spite of how hard we might try to correct
that impression in laer years, he will never forget that he got the
cold shoulder when he first came to live with us. He will never
be the type of citizen that he would have been If someone had
taken the trouble to see him, to invite him to be a member of
the community and towecome him to share the church and social
gatherings of the community.
We have a lot to offer a stranger. Our climate and our soils
are good. A man who is not afaird of work can come into this
county and prosper as a farmer or businessman. An of these
advantages of the county will have little meaning, however, II
we allow ourselves to become so self centered and selfish that we
cannot perform the very simple and enjoyable duty of making
new corners feel at home with us.
We are wondering if there are not some people in your COM
munity who might be able to say that no one has invited them to
take part in the community or shown the interest of going to visit
them.
The recent war years have disrupted living in all of our
communities. People have moved back and forth all over the
county nd state. Men have gone into service and come home
again. 1t is important that we promote a friendly spirit in order
to bring our communities together once more and to work for our
pursuit of happiness in the post war years.
If there are strangers in your community. If your church
attendance is not as good as it should be. If everyone in your
community is going their separate way" and not working to-
gether as they should for a better community it could be that
you are falling down on your job as a citizen and not following
1.-the golden rule and not loving your neighbor as much as you might
fsay that you do.
~ The Tylertown Times