The door I am talking about is the door to our neighborhood. Gone are the days when you moved into a house and lived there until you died. Irv and I are not the norm. We have lived in our first and only house for 37 years now. There are a couple of people on our street that have lived in their houses for a long time too, but not very many. The rest of the houses have new owners every 4 or 5 years.
I never get to know our neighbors very well because 1) I'm rarely hanging around in the yard to chat with them and 2) Believe it or not...I'm not very social or friendly.
Do you know your neighbors? Do you like your neighbors? Do you socialize with your neighbors? If you don't, would you like to?
I don't. I don't know. I don't and nope.
Irv on the other hand is outside all of the time, so he knows the neighbors well enough to strike up a conversation with them and he does. He let's me know who is sick, who lost their job, who is an ass and who is nuts.
Right now we have:
Nice guy, divorced, known him for many years
An okay middle age couple with older kids
Nice older couple with older kids and dog that our dogs really like
Unusual lady that plants tons of awesome flowers and bushes and then never weeds or waters them.
Older couple with a dog that the lady never ever stops yelling at. We want to "rescue" him.
A very, very large "family" that destroyed a really nice house by never repairing anything....like the door falling off the hinges and torn screens
Two 40 something guys that have an awesome yard with a great trellis and a big 60's like metal sun hanging on the front of their house
A young couple that did a great job fixing up their house and yard and last but not least....
The neighbor from hell!! Loud, obnoxious, let's his dog run loose barking at everyone in the neighborhood, let's his 10 year old back his truck out into the street and accused Irv of stealing some deck stain that he had delivered off his front porch! Came over with his daughter to snoop in our garage to see if it was there!! Yep, he's a gem!
So, who lives by you?
Andy and Aunt Bea?
Felix and Oscar?
The Nelsons?
The Cleavers?
The Osbournes?
I never get to know our neighbors very well because 1) I'm rarely hanging around in the yard to chat with them and 2) Believe it or not...I'm not very social or friendly.
Do you know your neighbors? Do you like your neighbors? Do you socialize with your neighbors? If you don't, would you like to?
I don't. I don't know. I don't and nope.
Irv on the other hand is outside all of the time, so he knows the neighbors well enough to strike up a conversation with them and he does. He let's me know who is sick, who lost their job, who is an ass and who is nuts.
Right now we have:
Nice guy, divorced, known him for many years
An okay middle age couple with older kids
Nice older couple with older kids and dog that our dogs really like
Unusual lady that plants tons of awesome flowers and bushes and then never weeds or waters them.
Older couple with a dog that the lady never ever stops yelling at. We want to "rescue" him.
A very, very large "family" that destroyed a really nice house by never repairing anything....like the door falling off the hinges and torn screens
Two 40 something guys that have an awesome yard with a great trellis and a big 60's like metal sun hanging on the front of their house
A young couple that did a great job fixing up their house and yard and last but not least....
The neighbor from hell!! Loud, obnoxious, let's his dog run loose barking at everyone in the neighborhood, let's his 10 year old back his truck out into the street and accused Irv of stealing some deck stain that he had delivered off his front porch! Came over with his daughter to snoop in our garage to see if it was there!! Yep, he's a gem!
So, who lives by you?
Andy and Aunt Bea?
Felix and Oscar?
The Nelsons?
The Cleavers?
The Osbournes?
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11 comments:
We moved about 2 years ago into our house - out in the country - My husband lived in our old house for about 14 years. I couldn't be happier at our new house though! We have a couple of 'strange' neighbors, but most of them are very friendly! What I like most is that the little girl across the street and my son have become bestest buddies - The two of them are like peanut butter and jelly! There were not very many children in our old neighborhood - it was full of people who had lived in their houses for 30+ years. Although we really moved to be out in the country - we got so much more!
We are in a rental right now, but currently looking at buying a manufactured home near the family farm. Personally, I don't know my neighbors (beyond my aunt and uncle down the road), and I don't want to know them. I know their "stories," and that's enough to keep my in my house with the doors and windows locked and the curtains pulled.
We lived in town for 38 years. In that time we lived in 1 apartment, 2 rental houses and 3 homes that we owned (at different times of course.) My husband could talk to a rock so he always knows everyone and their stories. I tended to know maybe 1 or 2 neighbors but not really even that well. Now that we live in the country we have 1 neighbor across the road. Hubby knows him. If he speaks to me then I recognize him. Does that tell you something? I like people, I really do and I do have some friends but I'm not a real social person at all. So I guess I'm pretty much like you.
Aaah neighbors, I don't know them-neither does Joe. We're both introverts, we do the obligatory wave as we enter/exit our garage, but other than that, nada. They all have names like, "The people with the dumb dog", "The cursing kids parents" (We had a neigbor's child sit in a lawn chair and hurl expletives at us as we unloaded the trunk...silly kid didn't know we were tri-lingual. hmmp!)There's also the Junkerton's with the front yard from hell, and Officer Krupke-our overzealous lawman.
I've never had a conversation with any of these people in 6 years. Our children's friends' parents' we know pretty casually and have spoken but just about kid stuff. Do I want to know them better? Nope, I kinda like it the way it is. We're neighborly in that we keep a close eye when each of us vacations and take care of our property, but it ends there.
Funny, I was just thinking about this topic today. I live in an apartment in a big city and it suddenly struck me as very strange that around twelve to fifteen other people also call the same building "home" and yet I know nothing about them really (my husband can't even recognize all of them on the street). I am friendly with the neighbor across the way who has a baby a few months younger than mine. The woman on the third floor (also with a baby) also seems nice. Maybe through our kids we'll eventually get to know each other better...
We just moved to a neighborhood where we don't have close neighbors. The people across the private road are related to the owner of our home. So we did meet his sister. She seemed nice. However she has called her family on my husband a couple of times because we live in the woods and DH likes to go out exploring..each time she was wondering who that man is out there! Asking her niece to call us and see if it was Paul lol!
The neighbors at the end of our private road live in a duplex owned by another of our landlords family members. We know one of the couples that live in there..have known them for a while. And then the house behind us..on our same property but about 1/8 mile walk up a steep grassy hill..they are our good friends that we helped to get the place. Their son and my son are the same age and it's great for them to be able to hang out together so easily.
My closest neighbors right now are the goats on the property..they are pretty darn cool and we've been working on getting to know them better ;-P
so all in all our neighbors are great! Maybe we are the nightmare neighbors? lol! Our last neighborhood we lived in for 6 years..didn't know many. just aquainted w/ the ones across and on both sides of us. Various probs, including next door Rot biting my arm (not bad though) he was scary until they got him fixed. They hated us because I called the humane soc :\ We saved their house from burning down though right before they moved..trash was on fire on the side of their house. I think they ended up thinking we weren't so bad after all. After that a family we had become aquainted w/from a neighborhood behind us moved in. She didn't have that great of control of her kiddos and they probably bug the crap out of the new people who moved in. I could handle them though. I have a strange ability to deal w/ irritating children lol!
In conclusion I like knowing my neighbors and being on a friendly basis. Tho I am shy and stick to myself it doesn't happen very often.
HAHA! I am glad to know that I am not the only introvert in the crowd! My daughter tells me I'm a snotty b----, and I don't like people. I told her that I work very hard at that. It's my goal in life. :) Joking all the way around of course.
I'm not mean at all and I try to like people, I really do...I'm just very happy by myself. I don't need to be chatted at by others and I don't feel the need to chat myself. The voices in my head are enough...joking again!
I know my neighbors because I am related to them! My brother lives next door and my dad lives across the street. I know the other neighbors because I grew up in this neighborhood...
I do not know my other next door neighbors...I don't think he wants to meet us. He gave me the stink eye last Saturday morning after the band practiced in The Manhole...can't say I blame him though.
Kathy,
We're twins separated at birth. I swear!
I'm not very sociable and I tend to keep to myself. My neighborhood is like yours; revolving door. They are all pretty nice and we have no issues but we have a mixed bag, too.
Nancy
Unfortunatly we live in an Apt. now so really don't any of our neighbors..I think it is sad..I miss the days when everyone in the neighborhood knew each other...Every mother was a mother to all the kids and they would jerk you up short if you were doing something wrong...Believe me we never tried to get away with much then...And when something happened to one of the families everyone one was there for them..really there...I think it is so sad our country has changed so much..Our children are the better for it either...
HA! Are you sure you don't live in my neighborhood? Except for the "neighbor from hell" I think we have all those people! We are very lucky in that all of our neighbors are pretty nice. We don't socialize with any of them (I think those days disappeared in the 60s when I was a kid), but I am outside a bit and know them better than my hubby does (since he works all the time). We've been here 9 years and only 2 or 3 have been here longer.
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