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Wave at Your Neighbors | Pad Patter 2.7

dotcomkari said:
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
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Oh no! I'm so sorry that you have to deal with people like that. But I'm glad you do have some good ones so y'all can look after each other!
 
IntenseMagic said:
Oh no! I'm so sorry that you have to deal with people like that. But I'm glad you do have some good ones so y'all can look after each other!
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It's actually so bad we filed a harassment suit against the one neighbors. No one in neighborhood can stand them.. they harass Literally everyone
 
Donitab said:
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!
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I love that idea of having breakfast together. I hate that Covid ruined it! Hopefully you will be able to get back to it soon. How sweet of you to be the neighborhood grandma...that's such a nice thing to do!!
 
A-M said:
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.
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My weird neighbors are kind of like that - just like they are not interested in being friendly. I love the idea that you have a key to the neighbors home, just in case. But like you said, I hope you never need to use it!
 
gonewiththewind said:
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.
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OMG that's just freaking scary! And ummm, yeah...I totally understand. What a wild story!
 
KimJ said:
@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. :eyeroll

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. :-)
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Gah, notes about the yard...sheesh...some people need to get a life.
Our neighbors across the street have 5 kids and they were always in our yard when they were little. They're all grown now, but it was a lot for a while lol Nice people, though.
 
QuiltyMom said:
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...
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Yep, same happened to me. We were the young ones when we moved in 30 years ago LOL. Ours has been a great neighborhood, too and perfect for raising kids.
 
bestcee said:
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. :whistle

We are moving though. Across from a school. That should give us an interesting neighbor!
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Oh yikes! There have been a couple of times that I've wondered about some kind of situation going on at our weird neighbors house, but so far nothing more than them standing outside at midnight yelling and then one drives off. Good luck with the move and a school should give you lots of waving :giggle
 
It would be nice to have a close friend in the neighborhood. I barely know the neighbors on either side of my house. One side, they're just quiet. We wave and have spoken a few times. The other side, they welcomed us when we first moved in but then did things like harass me about my political lawn signs. My best neighbors are the couple who live across the street. Lots of waving and chats with them.
I've become familiar with a few farther away neighbors as I walk around almost every day too. I value the time to listen to podcasts though and have done little more than wave and exchange a few words.
 
BevG said:
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.
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I do that, too! My goal is to make people wave at me and maybe smile lol. And yep, it's really nice look out for each other. The weird neighbors had some martial issues last summer and I think the husband left, so even though none of us were really friendly with them, we did go over and help her take care of her lawn.
 
dotcomkari said:
It's actually so bad we filed a harassment suit against the one neighbors. No one in neighborhood can stand them.. they harass Literally everyone
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What a miserable way to live. I just don't get it!! Glad you filed suit!
 
michelepixels said:
It would be nice to have a close friend in the neighborhood. I barely know the neighbors on either side of my house. One side, they're just quiet. We wave and have spoken a few times. The other side, they welcomed us when we first moved in but then did things like harass me about my political lawn signs. My best neighbors are the couple who live across the street. Lots of waving and chats with them.
I've become familiar with a few farther away neighbors as I walk around almost every day too. I value the time to listen to podcasts though and have done little more than wave and exchange a few words.
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Oh good heavens. I just don't understand people who want to harass others about signs...how petty.
 
IntenseMagic said:
Oh yikes! There have been a couple of times that I've wondered about some kind of situation going on at our weird neighbors house, but so far nothing more than them standing outside at midnight yelling and then one drives off.
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The yelling at each other outside - we let go like you. It was when one was yelling about physical abuse (inside their house) so loud we could hear it in our house! Now, we are pretty quiet people, but if I can hear you yelling from inside your house into my house, and we aren't townhouses..... Yep. I'm calling the cops.
 
QuiltyMom said:
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???
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I did a deep dive on property records of the subdivision I live in during the last 2 years. A couple my parents ran around with bought the last lot available on the other side of my neighbor and were building their house. They asked about various neighbors. My house is not the oldest since the subdivision was started in the 1950's. My house was built in 1964. I always refer the houses by the names of the owners when I was growing up as do many others that lived in the neighborhood in the 1960's. Many of those owners no longer own the houses or are even alive. Most have actually been owned for several owners over the years as well and very few have descendants of the original owners living in the homes. I've considered this house my home since 1964 even though I lived elsewhere for 10 years (college and several years after). Now for the interesting information from my deep dive...

I have lived in this neighborhood longer than anyone else. The few other houses that have children of the original owners living in them were built after my house. For instance, the girl I went to school with. Her parents built that house several years after mine. Also, she didn't live there for much of her adult life since she was married. The other house close by that has the son of the original owner living there also was built after my house. The son never lived in the house since he was already out of school and on his own when his parents built the house.

So my parent's friend has dubbed me "the mayor of Oakwood Hills". How's that for feeling old??? It will be 57 years for me in this house this coming August.

(I probably should do a layout with this information for posterity!)
 
If people wave at me, I will wave back, but in general, I'm not a chatty person. My subdivision, as a whole, is young and friendly, and the little kids all play together. It didn't have as many kids when mine were younger and I tend to keep to myself; I don't know if I would be different if my kids were hanging out with the neighbor's kids. My mom is perplexed that I don't know anything about my neighbors.

We just moved back in last November, after being gone for almost a year and a half, and my daughter and I have been walking the dogs, when the weather is good. The dog people here are less friendly than the dog people in the neighborhood where we were living before and that did surprise me. I think it might be because the dogs we run into now are less likely to be our neighbors, and while we smile and wave, no one feels like they need to stop and get to know us. (We have puppies, so we always respectfully stop to let people pass and as a way to show we're not in a hurry and can chat and socialize the dogs, but the other dogs always rush by.) We don't usually see anyone we know, either, which is also different than the other neighborhood. Maybe it will be different when the weather is nicer again.

One of my resolutions is to try to say yes more, such as when given the opportunity to chat or offered a drink or snack, but it's still a little scary. My first instinct is to always decline with a smile and run.
 
I like the neighbours on the one side, we borrow/lend eggs etc. My DD has baby sat for her, she cuts my hair etc.
The other side are much less friendly and we wave (hubby more than me) and avoid each other.
 
I get on well with some of my neighbours. I have elderly neighbours either side of me, one side she is lovely. The other side not so much, she will complain about every little thing. Her husband on the other hand is really nice and always says hello.

I only know the one neighbour opposite my house then who we are friends with. It's a really quiet street so don't see many people.
 
We live in a town are area and have many close neighbors. We like all of them thankfully and chit chat with them when we are outside doing yard work. There's one older guy that is on the back side of our house (we have an L shape and the back side is where our bedrooms are) and he used to snowblow his driveway that ran right along the wall by my oldest son's bedroom at like 10:00 at night and would wake him up every time. We asked him to try doing that earlier than bedtime and were worried it was going to become a source of conflict, but thankfully it didn't. We don't talk to them as much just based on location and that we're never on that side of the house much.
 
We live in a rural area but we have a nice little road with a few neighbors. We all know each other and are friendly. We've had family get togethers. In fact, we just had the neighbors that live behind us over for dinner on Friday night.
 
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