What are your neighbors like?

The lady across the street is nice. Quite friendly. Usually speaks when she sees us.

Our next door neighbors are less friendly. But they have a newborn so I guess that is their excuse.

I don’t like to be too friendly with neighbors anyway.

It has changed a lot in our neighborhood. As the children who were here when we moved in grow up, the houses are turned into rentals. We are nearly the only owners still living here.

I suggest you have an open house and invite your neighbors. We once had a Neighborhood Watch meeting at our house. It was a great way to get to know people.

I need to get in my car or at least on an ATV to visit my neighbors. I love this kind of life. We’ve only met one neighbor since we moved here 3 years ago. When my husband talked politics with her, that was the end of any friendship we may have had. That’s okay though, because she told him everyone within a mile of us pretty much keeps to themselves.

Oh man…well…haha
After decades of living on private rural properties I am now sandwiched in a triangle of nosey little old ladies.
The one to my left can’t see but hears everything. The one on the middle sees and hears EVERYTHING, and the one to my right is not nosey and brings me pastries but talks your ear off for about an hour with all of her health issues and family drama.

Jesus mercy…“Joan of martyrdom” is my nickname for her.
I JUST was writing in another thread how the half blind old gal next to me came over yesterday to ask me if I had been on the phone in my yard because she heard “voices”. ;-/
THEN, she actually asked me “who were you talking to?!!!”
Gah!

Yep, always under the microscope with
” Ol’ eagle eye Margaret.”
” Joan of martyrdom” and “Lorraine the pain.” lol

I moved into a new place about a year ago. I introduced myself to everybody I saw. They are all very nice.

Directly next to me, the couple fights loud and nastily all the time, the two kids are obnoxious and rarely supervised (age 7 and 3). That being said, we talk often and we give the lady rides to work sometimes, we swim at their house on occasion, drink a little wine.

Across the street, Jackie is a lonely widow with five dogs and some birds, we help her out sometimes since her son owns a business and is not very attentive.

The young couple across the street may be dealing, they rarely talk to us, lots of vehicles at all hours, and sketchy characters.

The rest are mostly young normal families.

Unless we need something, or are doing yard work, we all try to leave each other alone for the most part. Jackie has brought me clothes and things before though, she’s a sweetie.

We live in an older neighborhood, used to be the ‘nice’ neighborhood in the 70’s. Pretty wide lots so we’re not too close, probably 100 feet between houses, long driveways. Park behind our back yard.

We have two crappy houses across the street. I think gramma lives in one, and her daughter and her kids and everyone else live in the other. The people who live there constantly change, and they are HORRIBLE. They’re always yelling at their kids. The kids are always screaming, and running from one house to the next. Their dogs came over and attacked my dogs.

To their right is a really nice couple. They have such a pretty porch!

To my immediate right…I have no idea who lives there.

To my left, across the street, is a Vietnamese lady. She’s cool.

One thing about this town, you have shacks next to mansions. There is really no “nice” neighborhood vs “bad” neighborhood. That was nice when I was limited on what I could afford for rent. I rented an apartment (ground floor of a 3 story house) and I lived right next door to the president of the college, and down the street a bit was my doctor. Across the street was an empty lot where the kids could play ball. Very eclectic around here.

@Coloma I’m a nosy neighbor for sure, it’s a huge thrill for me to duck below the windowsill and listen to people fight outside on the street. ;) Hubs and I play fight loud sometimes to ‘fit in’ lol, he’s like “woman, go fix my dinner RIGHT NOW!”, it amuses us.

We live in the culdesac of a newish subdivision. When we bought this house, it was new and we didn’t have neighbors. Now we have a couple but don’t know them well enough to know what they’re “like.” My husband has had conversations with both, but I haven’t.

@livelaughlove21 yeah, my husband will just march on across the street and make friends (not with the crackers directly across the street though.) We’ll be out and he’ll say “Hi” to someone…and apparently it’s our neighbor from the block behind us! He heard a hot car firing up in one of our neighbor’s garage not too long ago, and just went over there to check it out. Just walked into the garage, “What you got under that hood?” They give him beer and he is their friend now.

@Dutchess_III My hubs is the same way. Once he found out the neighbor guy (at the crack house) did taxidermy he was all over it, trying to make friends so when he goes hunting he has a buddy to show him how to do it.

I have a couple of neighbors with whom I swap pleasantries when I’m out walking, but for the most part there appears to be little or no interaction among homeowners on my block.

The young family on my left are on renters and will soon be gone, as they’re waiting for their house to be built. I dread their replacements; renters are generally are lackadaisical about keeping up their properties and unfriendly.

The people on my right, about whom I’ve complained on Fluther several times, keep two, sometimes three big dogs in their backyard pretty much day and night, all year long. They (the dogs, not their owners) bark incessantly and angrily. All I have to do is open a door or window and they start barking and throwing themselves against the fence. Having initially complained to these people about their dogs and getting no relief, I now ignore them and they ignore me and virtually everyone else on the block.

I remember as a kid growing up on streets where people were always friendly and helpful with each other, but these days I wonder if that’s just a nostalgic fantasy

@Pachyderm_In_The_Room Sounds like someone needs to come visit me in Mayberry- lol

The dog thing really bothers me, it sounds like neglect. Do they leave them there all night barking too, that’s against the law for noise disturbance in my town.

I’ve moved many times to several states and everywhere I have lived I have had good neighbors. If I walk through the neighborhood people say hello to each other. If I am in a common area and others are around we often strike up conversations. I usually make friends with one or two neighbors and spend time with them, dinner, at the pool, just stop by, rely on each other for favors, etc. Always been good. But, I actively make an effort to know my neighbors and I don’t wait for them to approach me, I am happy to make the first move and see if it is reciprocated.

Just remember, you’re a neighbor too, @LornaLove. So, what do you bring to your neighborhood? Perhaps you could introduce a little friendliness and show them how it’s done?

My neighbors are very friendly. I sit on my porch and work sometimes and people walk by and smile and wave and stuff. Or we share an awkward moment where neither of us wave or smile and we just stare or look away quickly so the other doesn’t think we’re staring, haha.. it happens too. But eventually we’ll see eachother again and someone will have get it right.

Today about 20–30 of us right on my street corner all pretty much involved ourselves in peacefully subduing a crazed man who was causing a disturbance, shouting and flashing people. He even jumped into a daycare and made a scene in-front of the kids. Cops came and took him away. It’s like no one backs down in this neighbor hood, I’ve always had the sense that people look out for each other around here.

I have good neighbours, a family with a young daughter on one side and a single guy on the other. We are all on good terms and are friendly but respect each other’s privacy as well.

@ninjacolin Was he on drugs or mentally ill?

I really have no idea. he wouldn’t keep his train of thought for more than 3–5 seconds.. always on to a new topic.. I spoke with him for a few seconds, looking him right in the eyes and holding his shoulders.. he seemed completely alert and aware.. he even made a timely joke to my face about dating him. I asked him why does he want to go to jail he said he doesn’t.. but he asked us to call the cops.. then he did all that stuff.. so I really don’t know..

he also was quite fit and seemed otherwise very healthy. how can you get in such good shape without having the presence of mind to sculpt an athletic body? Maybe it was drugs? Super crazy..

@ninjacolin A guy came in a few weeks ago, said God woke him at 2:30am and told him to come get on our mikes on the radio and he tried to walk straight to a studio. Needless to say, cops ended up getting called. I think it was drugs.

Well, I do have to say that when our chimney caught on fire, the entire neighborhood swarmed to our rescue. We were watching TV, me on the couch under the front window which was at my back, when I caught the commotion from the corner of my eye….specifically the Big Black Guy from catty-corner across the street (the one with the pretty porch) vaulting from our yard to the railing of our front deck, then his feet disappearing onto our roof. Got my attention pretty damn fast! Yeah..everyone was there in a heartbeat to help us, before we even knew we needed help. The rescuers included the crackers from across the street. But not their dogs. So, that was cool.

My neighbors on three sides are all very nice. We say ‘hi’ when we see each other. We chat “over the fence” maybe four, six times a year.

The neighbor on side four is an insane older woman whose adult son lives with her. I’m pretty sure he’s mentally ill. They keep to themselves mostly, which is cool.

Like @marinelife, I make a point to be friendly, but keep neighbors at a distance. I’ve heard too many stories of relationships that turn sour (or even hostile) – and now you’re stuck next to them.

which ones? The ones who sued me for ten million dollars or the ones who count on me to babysit their cat?

The closest neighbor is a near 70 year old lesbian with a chip on her shoulder as large as any conservative’s.

^^^ LOL

Up in our corner of the building, there’s a retired couple with whom we trade newspapers and chat, an elderly Chinese woman who needs round-the-clock care and her caretakers, a priest, and us. We’re amiable and friendly, but there is only casual contact. We are available for small favors when needed.

Close by.

What did your neighbor sue you for 10 million for @anartist?

@Coloma: How did you respond to the old lady who asked who you were talking to? (just curious because for me, it’s always a fine line between not wanting to give up information to an undeserving person and not wanting to be too nasty, either).

@Coloma If she asks who you’re talking to again just say “Satan.” :}~

@ I said, rather sardonically…” well..I guess I was talking to someone I wanted to talk to!” lol
She kind of laughed but I think sh got the jist that I was not going to answer her directly.
@Dutchess_III haha

Inside my apartment block, which has four suites;

Guy next to me seems to hate his two sons. They’re about 20 or so. Anytime he talks to me, he’s always telling me about how one if his sons fucked up something. Otherwise, he warns me about something, like if I left dead leaves on his side of the yard. Guy needs a ride, I’m telling you. and it ain’t gonna be me

The girl upstairs is really loud, has drug problems and always lies. My roomate gets stuff from her but always ends up getting ripped off. Since she needs her shit so much though, she never learns. Said neighbor is friendly though, but I wouldn’t trust her with a penny.

Second guy upstairs is an old grouch. Him and his wife are always fighting, and he seems to hate everything. He has to have taken a liking to me though, probably cuz I’m a grouch too. I also hate everything.

The building next to me, I only know two of the tenants, although like my building, that one also has four suites. A young couple recently moved in there, haven’t got to know them much. They listen to loud pop music, have a kid, and the guy’s always washing his car, while the girl sits around talking to her girlfriends all day.
In that next door building, there also lives a family. Black people, with three kids. They’re my fave neighbors. Really friendly. They have an accent, a bit hard to understand what they say, but they fucking rule. They often organize parties for their kids in the backyard, and then their kids’ friends come over. Real madhouse out there sometimes. :) They always invite me over in the adult corner to have beer and hamburgers, plus whenever they see me out walking in the street, they offer me a ride to wherever I’m going. I love them. :) Also I help the wife with yard work often, just for the fuck of it. She kicks ass.

There’s also this other girl, she just talks about Vikings and zombies all the time, scares the fuck out of me. oh wait, that’s just me

@Symbeline I’m rofling! We seriously need to have a party at your house so we can observe all of this first hand!

Haha, with the old neighbor upstairs, we used to make fires out in the yard at night. Her, her boyfriend and their two kids. We’d spend hours out there in front of the fire. The guy next to me, I once spotted him just looking at us from his kitchen window, probably afraid we’d explode the yard or something.

That girl I did this with moved away though, so no more fires. :(

@Symbeline Ya little zombie fire starter! Stay the hell away from my hill, shit, California is already going up in smoke as I speak. lol