Good Neighbors, Not Fences, Make Good Neighbors

Hey, this is Ben with the Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast. My friends and I had an awesome time recording this episode for you guys before heading to the I Heart Radio Music Festival in Vegas. Here's a sneak peek.

Thanks to Hyundai for making this possible. Jason, what was one thing yesterday in the road trip that really stood out to you about the drive? I think it was, you know, it's scenic. There's like a big sundae. There's a huge thermometer. There's alien jerky.

We're like Googling what is alien jerky. So I felt like it was like we were on a museum. This episode is brought to you by the first ever fully electric Hyundai IONIQ 5. The thrill of forging your own path is powerful. Nissan is bringing that thrill to our community in collaboration with the black effect podcast network to create the thrill of possibility, a community impact program and summit curated to support HBCU students in science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics, or steam and introduce them to exclusive opportunities. Nissan is committed to creating opportunity for the whole community. And ensuring that black excellence is a part of the new future of automotive.

For more information about this program and how to apply, visit black effect.com slash Nissan. This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories, the show where America is the star and the American people. And to search for the Our American Stories podcast, go to the iHeartRadio app, go to Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And now another story from Jake Kaiser. Jake is the author of Daffodil Hill, Uprooting My Life, Buying a Farm and Learning to Bloom, which tells the story of the traumas she's faced and how moving to a farm in our small town of Oxford, Mississippi, helped her heal. And today, she tells a more lighthearted story about the culture shock she experienced while meeting her neighbors after moving from the big city to the small town and how that wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

Here's Jake. After I moved here right away, the most surprising thing was how welcoming my neighbors were. Of course, they had some nosiness to them.

They wanted to see what was going on, who had moved in. But one shows up on a tractor and I hear it coming up. I'm like, there is a tractor, a freaking tractor coming up my driveway. I'm not even sure the last time I'd seen a tractor, especially one up close. And there was a man on it who was dressed nicely, jeans and boots, but he had his plaid shirt tucked in and just pulls right on up. He wanted me to know about my property lines.

That's very important here. So the next neighbor that shows up, I hear another loud noise. It didn't sound like a tractor, but it sounded like a loud motor. I look out the window and there's a woman with long blonde hair, big sunglasses, and she's on a four wheeler holding a pie in one hand and the other is controlling the four wheeler. And there's a big dog on the back, a lab, and she gets off, comes over to the door as I open it, and she just kind of comes in and introduces herself and hands the pie to me. And I'm floored that someone made me a pie, although it turns out it was actually from the Piggly Wiggly. And she goes, I didn't have time to bake, but this from the Piggly Wiggly, it's really good.

It's like an egg custard. And I just couldn't believe that I was being welcomed with a pie. How many times have I?

I think I've probably moved at least 30 times being a military brat and just being very transient growing up. And I don't recall anyone ever welcoming me to a neighborhood, much less giving me a pie. Well, then another neighbor shows up after she leaves. Another neighbor shows up. And he says, my wife's out of town and she said it wouldn't be neighborly of me if I didn't take you to dinner on your first night here. And I was like, OK. So he ends up picking me up early, four or five. And we went to the Cracker Barrel. And that was the first real conversation that I had with a neighbor where he informs me he want to know what my basically state my business here. What am I want to do? And I mean, I was a silly city girl. And I'm like, I just want to I just want to make sure everything is productive and pretty.

And he just thought the look on his face was like, what? I'm like, yeah, I like form and function. It's got to have both.

It's got to be beautiful. It's got to produce. And I was sitting there spouting off all these things I wanted to have. Like, I wanted to grow truffles. They don't grow here. I didn't know.

I literally I didn't know that some of the breeds of chickens I wanted did not exist in the U.S. But he ended up calling me unusual. Like, you are an unusual girl. And I said, that is not a compliment. He goes, I'm just telling you, you're unusual. I'm like, OK, this is this is not going very well.

This is. I felt a little silly, but I felt like they thought I was silly and I had no farm cred whatsoever. And he said, I want you to know that we're your family. It doesn't matter what race you are, what because he'd asked me if I was going what church I went to. And I told him I didn't have a church. And he said, well, it doesn't matter what your religion is, what your race is, what your age or socioeconomic situation is. In hard times, we are your family.

And there may be times like, let's say, if there is a tornado or something, when you won't have you won't be able to leave or people can't make it into us. And we are all a community. We are family. And it touched me deeply.

I thought this is exactly what I've been looking for. And it turns out one of the reasons he was asked me what I wanted to do, you know, what kind of animals I wanted is because everyone kind of keeps track that, you know, if we need something, we know who's doing what and, you know, to an extent and how we can all help. Or maybe he's got extra hay that is going to go bad. But I need bedding. And so that things everybody just kind of helps.

Like if I've got too many eggs, I know there's plenty of people around me that are willing to take them because I was only one at the time with chickens around here. Most people had major livestock. But it was that sentiment of we are family that hit me hard and in a fantastic way. And a special thanks to Alex Cortez and to Robbie Davis for working on this piece and putting it together. And a special thanks to Jake Kaiser. What a thing to have happened to her from going to the big city, moving around all of her life to suddenly being greeted by men in tractors and women in four wheelers with pies. The story of moving from city life to country life. Jake Kaiser's story here on Our American Stories. Lee Habib here, the host of Our American Stories. Every day on this show, we're bringing inspiring stories from across this great country, stories from our big cities and small towns.

But we truly can't do the show without you. Our stories are free to listen to, but they're not free to make. If you love what you hear, go to our American stories dot com and click the donate button.

Give a little give a lot. Go to our American stories dot com and get. Hey, everyone, it's Ben, Matt and Noel here from the Stuff They Don't Want You to Know podcast. Ready to get spooky with us? Then if you dare head over to I Heartland on Roblox and come celebrate spooky season with our special Halloween episode. It's happening at State Farm Park, located smack dab in the middle of I Heartland.

Come make this the creepiest Halloween ever. Don't miss the Stuff They Don't Want You to Know Halloween special in I Heartland at State Farm Park starting Monday, October 24th at 7 p.m. Eastern. Learn more at I heart radio dot com slash I Heartland. When the world gets in the way of your music, try the new Bose QuietComfort earbuds to next gen earbuds uniquely tuned to the shape of your ears. They use exclusive Bose technology that personalizes the audio performance to fit you, delivering the world's best noise cancellation and powerfully immersive sound so you can hear and feel every detail of the music you love. Bose QuietComfort earbuds to sound shape to you to learn more.

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