People may wonder what makes Sequim different from the rest of the country. It is a real community similar to how the country was when I was a boy in Carmel, California. People look out for others in the community that may need help and pitch in without asking.

When it snows, people phone each other up to see if everyone is OK, need food, or any help such as cleaning the snow from your driveway.

When a person is down on their luck like not having enough insurance to cover their medical expenses our local restaurants put on a spaghetti dinner to raise money to help with the expenses.

Last week at about 3 in the afternoon, I went to my neighbors for my daily cup of tea. During our conversation I said one of my 25-foot-tall trees had died and that I would have to find a tree removal person. My neighbor said go and dig a trench about 2 feet around the tree and I will come over and try to pull it out with my SUV. I said, “Sounds good, I will dig the trench tomorrow.”

He said “Why wait?” so reluctantly I went home and dug a small trench around the tree. My neighbor came over attached a chain to the tree and pulled it out to the street.

Without saying anything to anyone, another neighbor saw what is happening, immediately pulled up, backing his truck up next to the tree.

Another neighbor sees what is happening and shows up with a chain saw and starts cutting the tree up. Within minutes the tree is in the back of the truck.

The tree weighed about 300 pounds and we were trying to figure how to get it in the back of the truck. We all grabbed a hold of the stump and lifted as hard as we could when other neighbors joined us in the lifting. We got it and all the tree limbs in the back of the truck and the person left with the truck for the dump.

All the rest of my neighbors disappeared before I had a chance to thank them.

Why is not the rest of the country like this? We seem to live in an island, isolated from the rest of the world that lives in a me-only world.

Clint Laird is a Sequim resident.