Do you know your neighbors? - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

rickg · #1 10-13-2003, 01:24 PM

We've lived in our house for 14 years now, and I only ever talk to the one neighbor. I'm just not a big socializer. (despite how I may seem on this forum)
I've seen/heard reports that people aren't as intimate with their neighbors today as say 50 years ago when people didn't move around as much. So I'm just wondering if I'm just an oddball(well, I know I am

), or if this really is common.

Glen · #2 10-13-2003, 01:42 PM

We recently moved from a home we lived in for 9.5 years. In the old neighborhood, we only knew the neighbors within a 4 house radius. We knew some better than others but all interactions were positive. For some reason, we never got to know the people further up or down the street.

In the new neighborhood, we've met many neighbors and everyone is friendly. We've already made friends of a couple neighbors and it looks like we'll make many more.

Neighborhood life has definitely changed. In the late 80's early 90's we lived in a townhouse and we knew many, many neighbors due to having kids. We socialized in the common areas and had impromptu get togethers all the time.

When I was a kid in the '70s, it seemed like my parents (and me too) knew all the neighbors on the block. We kids would stay out until dark during the summer just playing in the street. I miss those days!

#3 10-13-2003, 01:57 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by rickg
50 years ago

a neighbor helped you raise your barn.

today, more frequently, they are the great unwashed whose garbage blows into your yard.

i interact with a few neighbors quite frequently, and could call on them for help with a project or other general support.

i have several ive never even spoken to. last year an asian lady moved in next door. i tried on 3 occasions to speak to her, but each time she actually ran away. i suspect that was due to a language barrier. her teenage son surely speaks eng, but has never ventured further than the path from their driveway to door. never even stepped foot into the yard that i am aware.

there are many houses in my subdiv that i have never seen anyone outside/inside/coming/going/etc in 5 years. weird.

i think of several of the neighbors of my parents that are lifelong friends even after families moving, and understand that times and society are changed forever, and not necessarly for the better.

el presidente · #4 10-13-2003, 02:04 PM

Too well, I'm afraid

I came home late one night earlier this summer and found my neighbor's 18-year-old son with his girlfriend.....totally naked....hiding on my front porch. The blanket they were using was still spread out on the grass on the side yard.

I do know most of my neighbors.....most are great folks willing to do anything to help out.

sohj · #5 10-13-2003, 02:26 PM

Lots and lots of them.

I live on East 9th Street in Manhattan on a block with a lot of small buildings. Lots of 4 and five storey walkups. I know everyone in my building and at least one apartment's worth of people in every building on my side of the street and probably every other building on the other side of the street. We have a block association and live half a block away from a park with a dog run and several playgrounds, a handball court and two basketball courts.

I know the lady in the building next door to the west who is a jazz singer and the guy who lives in the apartment next door to mine in the building to the east. His cigarette smoke comes into my apartment if the wind is right, but, then again so do his morning glories when they grow big enough each spring, so I forgive him his feeeeeeelthy habit.

There's the guy who grew up in Brownsville as a yeshiva student with a communist older brother who was very aggressive in trying to get his little brother to renounce capitalism --- he hung him out of the window by his ankles until he said he loved the Soviet Union

. There's the book editor who throws great christmas parties and seems to have a huge collection of friends from london who are crashing on her living couch at any given weekend.

and the pastry chef with the two english bulldogs, and the boy, now fifteen, who lost his mother to a heroin death when he was eleven. And the violinist. And .... well ... you get the idea.

And we tend to hang out on the street a bit and chat.

And in the town in Vermont where we have land, I think we know most of our neighbors. You have to work at it a little more just because of the space between, but your lives overlap and you just end up knowing each other.

#6 10-13-2003, 02:47 PM

Nope, I don't now any of my neighbours very well. exept one, who's wife I work with at work. I am a recluse, and don't talk much to others, and one of the people on my street showed me his intelligence shortly after moving in by driving back and forth in front of my place with his rifle in his truck, when the dogs were released in the newly fenced yard.

Many have been becoming somewhat more outgoing as I've been fixing the house up though. Regardless, there are alot of "odd" people on my road.

rickg · #7 10-13-2003, 02:57 PM

Maybe it depends on the neighborhood we live in, too. I grew up in nice middle class neighborhoods, and got used to that mindset. Not making the kind of $$ my dad did, I have had to live in lower class areas since raising my own family, and I've just had a hard time socializing with alot of the people I do meet. When we first moved here, we started getting involved, but soon saw the real side of a few too many of them, and backed off. Now we don't even hardly say hi to the ones we met "back then". Kinda sad I guess. I'm not really self-rightous towards them (I don't think, anyway), I just didn't fit in. I blame myself more than them tho'. Most really are decent people.

G-Benz · #8 10-13-2003, 03:44 PM

I know my neigbors well...I mooned my next-door neighbor one Saturday morning last year !

I think each neighborhood and its residents set the tone for how well you get acquainted with each other.

Our home association spends more energy coming up with ways to involve some neighborly camraderie then they do pointing out the "faux pas" of pink flamingo yard ornaments...and that's a good thing!

We have a neighborhood pool, and it is the base for a lot of neighborhood holiday (or non-holiday) activities.

Just last month we've started having "happy hour" Fridays with different hosts each weekend. This weekend, it's my turn to be host.

How do the rest of the neighbors know who's the host? Look for the pink flamingos placed gingerly in plain view of the front steps!:p

sixto · #9 10-13-2003, 04:13 PM

On one side we have my in-laws and we know them pretty well

On the other side are family friends of my in-laws so they're not strangers. After almost 10 years, I couldn't pick out the folks across the street in a line-up. They must be good folks because I park the SDL across the street and it spews raw fuel fumes for up to 10 seconds on cold start. Also across the street is a family and we're on waving terms. I saw one of them struggling with a big heavy box so I went over to help... that sort of thing. The teenage son washes his Saturn almost daily. He leaves the stereo on and plays 'today' music with an 80s beat so I enjoy it. Sometimes his friends come by and blare rap. I'm tempted to idle the SDL with its lifter tick to mask the boom-boom. His friends come in packs. One time it was 3 Odysseys all decked out in rice. Then it was 3 xBs all decked out in rice. And his car is a very clean plain old Saturn. But I digress.

Which brings up another topic. A couple of neighborhood boys knocked on our door asking if my 7-year old could come out and play. I think they know him from a first communion class. I told them that we don't let him play outdoors - bicycling on the street and stuff. Then they wanted to come in. The smaller one was at least 10 years old and the other one was about 5'5". I turned them down. Why would they want to play with a 7 year old? Must be a culture thing. Where/when my wife and I were growing up, no one played in the street and parents knew to within 10 feet where their kids were. It didn't feel restrictive, that's just the way it was.

Sixto
95 S420
91 300SE
87 300SDL
83 300SD

G-Benz · #10 10-13-2003, 04:50 PM

I can relate to the kid behavior thing...kids of all ages in our neighborhood. As far as the adolescents, it's more trucks SUVs and Jeeps than rice (Texas ya know

).

We had older girls coming over to play with my much younger daughter. Seemed weird at first, but as the girls got older and adolescence kicked in, they were nowhere to be found.

One boy is from Iceland and hasn't gotten the culture thing down yet. So he comes by at 7AM on Saturdays ringing doorbells in search of a playmate. Once we forgot to lock the front door but armed the system before leaving. He came by looking for our daughter. When no one answered, he decided to just let himself in. The alarm scared him and he ran. His dad escorted him over the next day to explain what happened! :p

rickg · #11 10-13-2003, 04:53 PM

Poor kid! Iceland to Texas....talk about culture shock!

blackmercedes · #12 10-13-2003, 05:21 PM

We have 25 homes on our street (a cul-de-sac) and we known everyone to some degree. I can count 14 that we have come to know very well. We hold block parties, and when a new family moves onto the street, we hold a "welcome" party. We have lived here since February of 1999, and are still one of the "new" families, with many of the owners original builders from 1971.

We have two "jerks" on the street, one is a an ambulance chasing lawyer, and the other is a retired big-company CEO (he's okay, his wive is a giant a$$). Both of them have adult children in prison (or recently released). One of the "kids" is serving time for murder. Otherwise, everyone is pretty nice and we really look out for each other. Years back one of the homes was rented, and the tenant started a "grow operation" in the basement. The cops brought a survilliance van to watch the house. We had the whole neighbourhood calling the cops on the cops!

Frank X. Morris · #13 10-13-2003, 09:42 PM

Howdy All,
Neighbors?¿ One has a rescue kennel and has about 40 Border Collies ( anyone want to adopt a dog). She has a character flaw so I don't have much to do with her. Her husband is ok but I question his sanity for being with her. The closest neighbor is just less than a quarter mile away. The guy there I know pretty good. I've done some guard work for him. I have to drive past his house andhis place of business when I go to work. His business is an airplane salvage yard. Lots of aircraft stuff in the movies is his. His library of aircraft tech. manuals is the largest in the country if not the world. Another "neighbor" is the stinking dairy

Then my last "neighbor" is the airport where Preditor flies. That's where I work and on most Sundays I take the dogs to run

The Guy · #14 10-13-2003, 09:47 PM

Who? Susan?

CJ · #15 10-13-2003, 10:28 PM

Oh Yenta!!!!!!!!