Author David Bruce, in his book Don't Fear the Reaper, tells a wonderful story about a crotchety old man with a less than positive attitude. One winter, some unknown person went to this elderly man’s house and cleared his driveway. Without saying anything about it and with no expectation of compensation, he cleared the driveway. As if that wasn’t enough, using the snow which he had scraped from the driveway, the anonymous do-gooder made a row of smiling, waving snowmen to line the driveway. Isn’t that beautiful? What a wonderful gift! But remember, I told you the old man was crotchety. When he saw what had been done to his driveway, the old man complained about the “trespasser” who scraped the drive and had made the snowmen. That was the word that he used: “trespasser.”
His neighbor’s son, however, did not know what the word “trespass” meant. He assumed that it must be a good thing. He was impressed by the snowmen, and exclaimed, “Wow . . . that’s the biggest, bestest present I’ve ever seen!” He then asked his dad, “Could we have someone ‘trespass’ on our lawn, too?”
That caught the old man off guard. He smiled, and the next day he left a Christmas card outside his neighbor’s front door as well as a gift for his neighbor’s son. His neighbor writes, “If I ever find out who made the snowmen on [the old man’s] lawn, I will be sure to send them something in return. They gave my son, myself, and our elderly neighbor “the biggest, bestest present ever!”[1]
1. Anwahs, “Trespassing Snowmen,” Dailygood.org, 26 December 2007 <http://www.dailygood.org/view.php?qid=4259> 250 Anecdotes.