I keep a calendar in my classroom with all of these weird holidays on it and today is Wave at Your Neighbors with All Your Fingers Day! It always makes me laugh because I guess they mean as opposed to one finger . Around here, most everyone waves all the time, mostly with all their fingers, but here at my house there are three neighbors that I can actually see. Two of them I know pretty well because we've all lived here for 25+ years, and one of them actually came and plowed my driveway a couple of weeks ago. The other neighbors are quite odd. We sometimes speak or wave, but they are really just kind of strange. I consider myself really fortunate that we've never really had a dispute with a neighbor, other than when my dog ran around the neighborhood and bothered the HOA president. But I'm wondering...Do you have close neighbors? Do you get along with all of them?
Our neighborhood has grown a lot so I used to know most everyone but not any longer. In general we're pretty friendly with a good handful- especially the neighbors that have kids our kids' ages as they all end up playing together!
We're on a small quiet cul-de-sac and have been lucky to not have any noisy neighbors. We don't hang out but we chat when we see each other outside and sometimes help each other with outdoors things and lending equipment/ladders. Most of my neighbors have been here for over 15-20 years except for the family to the right of us. They bought the house 2 years ago and we got lucky with them too, they are a wonderful family and their kids are just adorable. Fingers crossed we have the same experience when we sell our home and move in a few yrs.
My neighbors are close but not too close. The closest house to mine are pretty nice people. I've watched their kids grow up and go out into the world. But I do miss the days when their oldest (a boy) would come over and hug me... and he was still shorter than me! He's now over a foot taller, graduated from college, and engaged. But he still tries to check in with me when he is home but it was difficult during COVID last year. In the past they have invited me to their outdoor football watching parties for OSU in early fall. And, I've been invited to graduation parties as well. When they have family parties, they have asked permission to use my driveway for overflow parking and are considerate enough to leave a lane for me to get out if needed. I am probably closest though to the neighbor across the street. He mows my lawn and has done some of the little things needed around the house for me. I do pay him but he is always willing to put me on his list of projects. He likes doing this type of stuff and has pretty much taken me and my cousin (I introduced them when she moved to the neighborhood) under his wing since we are both over 65 and single. He also has used my driveway for overflow when having family parties. The neighbor behind me I've known pretty much from the beginning when her parents built the house several years after my parents built this house. We also were in the same class in school. She and her husband bought her sister's share in the house when her father died and have moved in and done lots of work updating it (like I have with mine). The other neighbors are "hi how are you" neighbors and I don't really have issues with any of them. There is a reason this neighborhood in my small town has houses that sell very quickly. It is very desirable and best thing.... no HOA. But I very rarely see the neighbors during the winter. I did see Chris a week ago when he plowed my driveway. I am so very grateful that he is willing to do it for me since I have a driveway that can fit at least 4 cars and is 2 cars wide!
We have two close neighbors (the one next door to us and the one across from us) that we tend to hang out with, wave, etc and are friendly with. They are really awesome and really help out with watching my daughter when she's playing in the neighborhood. The people who live above us are less social, but we still wave and such. We have a few odd ones in the neighborhood but it's a pretty friendly area.
Two of my neighbors and I used to have breakfast every Wednesday for several years until Covid hit. We’ve been scrambling to make something work but it has been hard. Several on our block are younger with kids since our aging block has moved away or died. I try to encourage all the kids with small gifts at holidays. Just little pkgs of Candy and maybe something from Dollar Tree. Every block needs a grandma and I’m making sure it’s me. I love living in a small town!
I live in a 4 plex and we love our neighbors in the building all are respectful and helpful to each other and we talk a lot and are willing to help each other such as borrowing eggs or shoveling cars off. Now the family across alley from us is a different story. They ..are nothing but trouble . Called animal control on us.. tried to get our car towed from our parking lot... and so much more. Just horrible people
Our neighbor on our north side is a bachelor and lives on his own working long hours so we hardly every see him. The neighbor on the south side we have a personal gate between us so we often see each other. My Ken just finished making a table for her new huge TV to sit on. Whenever Ken does some sort of odd job for her she gives us some home baking. We had to recently let her know not to make us any more banana muffins or cakes as neither of us like them so the wild birds had a nice feed of cake that time. Neighbors directly over the road from us do not even wave - we have tried to be friendly but they are not interested. When it is Halloween night they always put up a huge "wet paint" sign at their front porch. We definitely wave and speak to others in our street. I keep an eye on the elderly lady living diagonally opposite as each morning I watch to see she has opened her blinds which indicates she is up and about. We have a key to her home for if those blinds are never opened which I hope we never need to use.
I'm a friendly person, and I will chit chat with one of our neighbors . . . but for the most part, the rest will get a wave and a smile but no conversation. There's a reason why. When we first moved here, there was an older lady that lived next door. It was a NIGHTMARE. It's such a long story and I don't really feel like typing it all out, but she cussed my hubby out three times and yelled at us in our house from the street, was constantly disruptive and she did have a gun . . . and the final straw was when I was pregnant with Olivia and she saw me come outside with our dog. She was on her riding lawn mower, and was actually chanting/yelling "Die, baby, die. I hope your baby dies. Satan's going to take your baby." Needless to say, after that, we applied and were granted a restraining order. I do feel sorry for the woman now. She thought her husband that died right before we moved in was D.B. Cooper (he hijacked a plane and parachuted out after getting ransom money from the FBI) . . . mainly because he told her on his deathbed he was. Dan Rather interviewed her, and she was constantly having metal detectors screen her yard. I really think she just went crazy after finding out her husband wasn't really who she thought he was. Our house was a vacant lot beside theirs, and she thought that part of the money was on our property. As much contact as we had with her, she never once told us about this. We found this out from another neighbor. Anyway, from everything I've read, her husband was ruled out as D.B. Cooper. So you can see why I'm very reticent to become friendly with neighbors.
@gonewiththewind Yikes, Cheryl! Wow. I can't imagine. I hope she left you alone once you got the order. The worst we've had to deal with is some noisy parties behind us, and a couple of scolding anonymous notes left in our mailbox when life got crazy and we let our yard get overgrown. Whatever. Most people around here do wave, but I don't really know most of my neighbors. The only ones we kind of know live in one of the houses behind us (not the noisy one). We were building our houses at the same time and were out at the site often. It turned out that the husband and I worked in the same building and he recognized me. He came up and introduced himself at work the next day and we all got to know each other a bit when we first moved in, but we haven't kept up. We have no neighbors across the street since there is a park. The neighbors we see most often (our driveways are next to each other) moved in about a year and a half ago. They have a lot of kids (at least 5; I've seen others that I'm not sure are theirs). The kids can be a little noisy playing in their driveway, and their basketball keeps ending up in our (fenced) backyard, but they are polite and friendly.
We live in a townhouse development on a cul de sac. We've been here 24 years (DH 28) and while we were one of the "young" couples we're now considered one of the oldies. Eek!! When did that happen??? But it's an amazing neighborhood. I don't know a lot of the people anymore because a lot of the homes have turned into rentals (including 3 in our building) and the residents change every year. This year I've missed all the workdays and Oktoberfest and the like due to stoopid covid. We really haven't had issues with any of our neighbors, but then if we did they'll most likely be gone next lease year...
We live on a corner. We have been friendly with the mom across the road and her kids. Helped them catch their loose dog, etc. The house to our right, we called the cops on a few times, so I'm pretty sure they didn't like us before they separated and moved out. (It sounded like domestic violence.) The other houses are empty and boarded up. So, I don't wave at them. We are moving though. Across from a school. That should give us an interesting neighbor!
My goal has been to smile and wave to everyone that I see when out walking. I have noticed that people still stop to talk to each other when out, but they stand far apart - well they did this summer - too cold now. That said, when we lost our dog about a month ago, I only told one neighbor but another one asked me about it. He said he had heard and expressed his condolences. I even had neighbors comment on my weight loss last winter because they saw me out there walking all the time and getting thinner. My next door neighbor have taken trips to China for a month or so before. They haven't told us before hand, but we noticed. The neighborhood behind them and I took turns mowing their yard while they were gone. I think it is good to know what is going on and to look out for each other.
Oh, I forgot the best neighbor part!!! They build some townhouses up the street from us and one of my good friends moved there about 4 years ago. So we walk together 2-3 times a week. She is about 1/2 mile from my house (and it is uphill the whole way .
The two neighbors that I have had for the longest both have kids the same ages as my older ones. I miss the days of them all playing together in the cul-de-sac. Every now and then we have all the grandbabies out there playing
We live in a cul-de-sac as well and it's been a wonderful place to raise all our kids. Nothing like good neighbors for borrowing things
My only neighbors now are my family and we're not very close together. I love seeing one of their cars coming down the lane.
I will live where there is no HOA whenever I get to move lol. I have loved living in this place long enough to see lots of children grow up and are now bringing their children back. We don't see ours much in the winter either.
I have loved having neighbors who all watch out for each others kids. I guess there are odd ones in every area lol