Oiling The Cogs


Islwyn the village elder is a bit of an odd job man of some note, and so it's not unusual for people to ring him up regularly in order to get something done about their house. Sailor John was an electrician before he retired and is, I am sure, well used to people asking for advice about wiring problems and the like and Animal helper Pat, an excellent seamstress, has been asked many a time to run up the hem on old Trevor's curtains
It's not as though people want things for nothing.
But brains and skills  are there to be picked sometimes.

Over the past few weeks , my nursing qualification has proved to be useful.
I have been asked to give my opinion on a patch of healing  skin. I have been requested to check if I thought someone had suffered a stroke ( they hadn't but I was correct in my diagnosis of an urinary tract infection) and only yesterday I was asked to call up to see the visitor of one of the Flower Show exhibitors who had cut her leg on the Gop, to see if she needed a stitch or two.
She did.

All simple stuff to be  sure but small favours do  " oil the cogs" in a community I always think.
The wife of the chap with the skin problems thanked me the other day for my advice...I laughed and told her she would be providing the blooms for the tea tables at the Flower show from her garden.
Seeing the girl with the grazed knee cemented good relations with her hosts and doing a few observations on the chap with a bad bladder led to a small bunch of summer flowers being left by the back door.

Oiling the cogs.........makes life a whole lot easier.


27 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:39 am

    That is an appealing part of living in a small community.

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  2. and it's good to help your neighbours!

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  3. What goes around, comes around - the more you give, the more you get.

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  4. That's what makes small village life so appealing.

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  5. I second what Cro Magnon said ... the appeal of a small village where everyone knows you and everyone looks out for the other, is very appealing.
    I am especially conscious of this these days, when I am living alone for the first time in my life. It is a comforting thought to just know there is someone out there who would notice if you went missing for a day or two or three.

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  6. Anonymous11:52 am

    Paying it forward is good karma.
    I live in hope that when I use my skills to do someone a favour, they in turn will help out someone else in need.

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  7. When I was in nursing school, they kept telling us over and over again that when people asked us for our medical opinion about something to simply tell the to see a doctor.
    Well.
    I remember once my neighbor came over, pulled up her blouse and said, "Feel this. Does this feel like cancer to you?"
    Hmmmm...
    I felt. And felt and felt completely comfortable in telling her that she should see her doctor. I mean...
    She didn't have cancer. But how was I to know? There was something there...

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  8. You know, John, this reminds me of my childhood. In my neighborhood, my mother was the one the others came to for advice. Was it measles, mumps or chicken pox? Did it need stitches, or could she butterfly bandage it? Please take Johnny's temperature (we had the only thermometer in the neighborhood) and advise. Mom's expertise came from the cadre of women who mentored her. Not really the same these days, but how nice to know there still is an oiled cog.

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  9. This is as it should be... everywhere

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  10. Mrs. RWP, a retired RN, is often asked for her opinion by people with medical issues. She usually suggests that they "might want to have a doctor look at that" but we have received no bunches of summer flowers by the back door to date. Bummer.

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  11. Doing for others is always a good thing.

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  12. It's like please and thank oiling the cogs, but taken a big step further. That said, I do think this happens more in small communities, as others have said, but it can happen within small areas of town, too. My mother takes the time to stop and talk to her neighbours and has never wanted for someone to do snow removal. She reciprocates in many ways - baking, an outdoor plant in the spring, a gift certificate, or in one case, basically giving away several pieces of used furniture she had no further need for when a neighbour's child went off to university and needed to furnish an apartment. It's a matter of knowing your neighbour enough for each party to care about the other - and like everything else, someone has to go first, so why not let it be "us" that does that, if we want that community feeling?

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    1. Meant to say "like please and thank *you* oiling the cogs" - sorry about the typo that made that first sentence even more confusing :)

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  13. It's interesting how this differs from life in London, where we just don't lean on each other as much. Which is a shame, really, isn't it?

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  14. I don't have anything anyone would want though John! no skills or qualifications, no talents at all. How lovely to be in such a caring village.

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  15. Pockets of this exist in close communities in city suburbs, in street communities and the inner city espcially where people actually speak to each other.

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  16. It happens here with the farming community John, although we don't live in the village. We lend somebody our trailer, they lend us their baler if ours breaks down. Oiling the cogs indeed.

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  17. I love that! Everyone has something valuable to give and sometimes even they don't know it until asked.

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  18. I moved on from nursing into a related discipline however I still get asked medical questions. Regardless of my knowledge, or lack of, I think it is the air of calm we bring to what, for other people, can be a worrying time.

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  19. If you want your cogs oiling ask a mechanic. He'll charge you three quid for the oil and thirty quid labour plus the 20% VAT he didn't mention in the quotation.

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    1. Cynicism at its very best.... hahaha

      Jo in Auckland, NZ

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  20. Everyone has some sort of talent or skill that is of use to someone else, it's nice when we can share this around. It's how communities used to be and how they should be again.

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  21. Oh, I thought you were oiling the dogs as usual.

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  22. Communities are a wonderful thing. A wonderful thing which should be encouraged. On a small scale, on a grand scale.

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  23. Cog oiling appears to be a dying skill... or is that me being dour again?

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  24. Our community is very small really, and the job I do in it means I get to see many elderly people who are in need.... of something or another... on our FB page we often get requests for things, "needs a new bed" "anyone got a spare skirt for such and such school" "free oranges here" "free bike to a good home". It is amazing how many times these things happen and someone steps up and meets the need. I love being part of it.

    Jo in Auckland, NZ

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I love all comments Except abusive ones from arseholes