I grew up up in a small section in the City of Camden, NJ. In that time, 60's & 70's everyone knew
everyone else. Parents would have block parties and kids would play games all day and night. We not
only knew who our neighbors were, we interacted with them.

Things have changed.... With the exception of the my next door neighbor, whose kids were born the same week
as my grandson so they hang out together, and the woman across the street, who lived in the same small section
of Camden when I was a kid, I don't know anyone on this block. My parents have been in this house for thirteen years,
circumstances made me move into this house so it now belongs to me, and I still don't know a anyone else on the block
even though it's the same people that been here for the thirteen years.

So I ask you, Do you know your neighbors?

I know the neighbors next door and the neighbors across the street on the corner.  I met the one neighbor across the street next to the corner house but they moved a few months ago. The other 3-4 houses in proximity to mine pretty much keep to themselves.

Where I lived as a kid I knew almost everyone in the street.  I went to school with the girls across the road, my brothers knew their brothers etc.

The next house I moved to (when I got married) we knew the people in the immediate vicinity but no further than two or three houses away.  The next house we moved to I knew a few more because it was a small street.  The last house we lived in the UK I knew the family on one side of us and happened to know the family across the road from before we moved there.

Now in the US I do not know the neighbours at all.  If I see the car from the people on one side of us turn in the drive (for example if I'm waiting for the school bus) I wave to them but I could walk past them in the mall.  I really don't know the other people at all.

I know pretty much all of my neighbors.  We have all lived here at least 4 years.  The only one's I really don't know are the immigrant family across the street.  The adults don't speak very good english so they keep to themselves.  They seem nice, though.  A decent, hardworking family.  Their kids I know a little better because the boy is the same age as my daughter.  Very outgoing but kind of obnoxious like most kids that age. :D

Considering my neighbor is my landlord....yeah...

Actually, the neighborhood I live in is very friendly. Five houses share one driveway and I am on casual conversation terms with 3 of them. One of the neighbors has invited me to their pot luck and another neighbor has been to my landlords for bbqs and thanksgiving dinner.

There are several other people in the neighborhood who I've seen often enough we wave to one another regularly and one lady who always walks her dog stops to exchange niceties when were out at the same time.

We know one family. The rest might as well live in New York.

I know no-one in my neighbourhood......and do not wish to! I have lived in the same house for the past 9 years....

I know my neighbours on one side who are an elderly couple and the people opposite who are relatives of my brother's best friend.

The house that is joined to ours is full of polish blokes whoc come and go all hours of the day and change regularly...........

My Family know most of the neighbors that live on our block that we've knew since I grew up with them for 30 years but some of them are either dead or reside in Florida,Our neighbors or what's left of them are mostly Chinese/Japanese.

We live in a 72 unit building.  Of those 72 condos, only half are full.  Of that half, I know the neighbors above and below us pretty well.  The rest are just a passing, "Hey, how are you?" acquaintance relationship.  It is actually pretty hard to get to know a lot of our neighbors in this building though because most of them are grad students in the medical field and they come and go at all hours.  Now in the neighborhood itself, I know a few people.  There is a grandmother and her grandson that I usually stop and talk to if they're about.  I also know the guys that live and work at the Catholic Theological Union, some of the St. Augustine friars (they have a house across the street from us), and one of the maintenance guys for another condo building.

We lived in an apartment complex in Indiana, so I only knew the people that lived across the hall from us.  It was a big complex, and most everyone was at work all day, except for the babysitters or the few stay at home moms or the elderly.

I only lived in two towns in California, both of which were small and bordered each other.  So I knew pretty much everyone. :)

The old neighborhood where I grew up is still pretty much the same.  My parents have had the same neighbors since 1974.  The neighborhood I live in now I only know one person.  Everyone pretty much keeps to themselves.

The first house I lived in (until I was 8) everyone knew everyone else. Everyone kind of looked after everyone, too. We would have but to-dos all the time (usually at the playground because that in the center of the neighborhood). Halloween was the BEST-it was always the Saturday adjacent to Halloween. We would have a parade of the kids in their costumes-led by the local fire department, and end up at the playground for judging and then everyone went trick-or-treating. By the time the sun went down, all the candy was handed out and all the ghosts & goblins were safe and sound back home. (When I moved away, I couldn't believe people saying that they were going to START trick-or-treating after the sun went down because I thought all the candy would be gone by then-what did I know?)

Today, I sort of know who my neighbors are but we don't really interact. I'm sure many of you have heard the story about how our next door neighbors were not very nice people. We can always hear them yelling-cussing up a storm, etc. etc. But it was discovered that they had lead in their house and they had to leave for about 3 weeks while a crew came in to remove all the lead (they kitchen had to be gutted because of the cabinets had lead). After that, they became...human. We aren't the best of friends or anything but we have exchanged Christmas gifts (Carlos made an apple pie and gave them one and they in turn gave us a bottle of wine), she even gave us some venison that she had in the freezer.

The woman across the street is an older woman-widowed about 2-3 years ago. We basically say "Hi" but that is about it. Carlos has gone over to her house if he notices something wrong (the last time was about a year ago when he noticed the flashing on her chimney looked loose-she called someone and sure enough, Carlos was right).

The couple who lives next to the older woman are very nice. We don't really interact with them other than saying "Hi". I have known her before I moved here. My first year at college, I took a course called "Early Field Involvement" for teachers. I got to sit in a class and observed. She was the teacher who's class I observed. He used to work for UPS so he would come to house when we got a package.

Oh, on the other side of us is a church. We do know the minister (used to work with him when I was volunteering at the local food shelf).



Cat

I grew up up in a small section in the City of Camden, NJ. In that time, 60's & 70's everyone knew
everyone else. Parents would have block parties and kids would play games all day and night. We not
only knew who our neighbors were, we interacted with them.



My neighboorhood is still like that but it does drive me crazy that everytime i go out i always get late to where i'm going 'cause i have to chit chat with 30 different neighbors who know me since i was born. They're good people but sometimes you're just not in the mood,you know?
When i was away i actually enjoyed how everyone minded their own business.

I did growing up. Now that I have my own home I barely know anybody,my husband does because we moved to where he grew up.His mother,sister,step-father & nieces live 2 houses down.

No, hardly any of them.

I have a couple friends that live in the surrounding area, I suppose they're my neighbors, but in terms of people on the same street as me, I don't really know any of them. Turned out one of my neighbors died a few weeks ago and I had no idea, never spoke to him. There's a few I'll say Hi to in passing but that's about it.

I don't know most of the new neighbors but I should introduce myself to them.

Like most of you, I knew the people in the neighborhood where I grew up (many of them were babysitters thru the yrs).

When Micah & I moved to Ferris and lived in the West Campus family housing, I knew most of the people in our building (when we lived in the old WC apts), but when we moved to the new townhouses, I didn't know very many.  She knew more from playing with the kids.

I've lived in this duplex for 4 yrs.  With only a couple exceptions, my neighbors have been college students.  The current tenants are a couple of guys in a fraternity (one of the African-American ones, so they like to practice their stepshow routines).  One of them is a DJ, so his stereo equipment is top notch (and top volume).  They like to host parties, usually starting about the time I go to bed.  I would like to move my parents in there when they leave, but there is no way they would leave the lake to come to BR (and I don't blame them).  It would make it more convenient, but it would be a longer drive to Muskegon for Dad's appts at the VA.

So I'm not the only one who is antisocial.  ;D

I think it's that people just don't have the time to deal with getting to know people. Cable TV, satellite
dishes, dvd's, Cd's, gaming systems and computers occupy most of our time. Actual human interaction is
a thing of the past. A part of me misses the camaraderie of a closeknit neighborhood but it isn't so bad
keeping to myself and just watching a quiet neighborhood street void of all outdoor activity.

I know some of my neighbors, but the majority of them keep to themselves. I remember growing up in neighborhoods where we knew and interacted with the majority of our neighbors.  :)

I think it's that people just don't have the time to deal with getting to know people. Cable TV, satellite
dishes, dvd's, Cd's, gaming systems and computers occupy most of our time.


That and the fact that I live in the city of Saint Louis, if I introduced myself I'd probably get shot.  ;D

That and the fact that I live in the city of Saint Louis, if I introduced myself I'd probably get shot.  ;D


I lived in Camden and work in Philadelphia, I know exacly how you feel.

Have some of you guys have neighbors who have stayed and never moved to Florida? ???

I lived in Camden and work in Philadelphia, I know exacly how you feel.


Exactly dude, you can feel the hostility some days. (Some of these Cali bums probably think we're kidding.)

I know some of my neighbors, but the majority of them keep to themselves. I remember growing up in neighborhoods where we knew and interacted with the majority of our neighbors.  :)


Do they still live on your block?

Have some of you guys have neighbors who have stayed and never moved to Florida? ???


No Howard, all of the houses on my street are vacant, everyone lives in Palm Beach, that's the real reason Pat Buchanan did so well there.

No Howard, all of the houses on my street are vacant, everyone lives in Palm Beach, that's the real reason Pat Buchanan did so well there.



So where does that leave you? ???

Have some of you guys have neighbors who have stayed and never moved to Florida? ???


I think I can fairly safely say none of my neighbours have moved to Florida

I think I can fairly safely say none of my neighbours have moved to Florida


Why Not,Karen?

Why Not,Karen?


Because its not something people do in Britain.  And here one neighbour moved away into the next town but no one else has moved.  Moving to Florida is an old people thing, no?

Because its not something people do in Britain.  And here one neighbour moved away into the next town but no one else has moved.  Moving to Florida is an old people thing, no?



Yeah It's an old people thing.

So where does that leave you? ???


With a lot of acreage to hunt racoons in the city.

Because its not something people do in Britain.  And here one neighbour moved away into the next town but no one else has moved.  Moving to Florida is an old people thing, no?



Stereotypically, most definitely!  However, my brother (age 38) moved down there 2 years ago and has no intention of moving back even though the romance he moved down there for didn't work out.  He is going to move to a different part of the state, but can't blame him for not wanting to come back to Michigan.  I, myself, would love to move to Arizona, another stereotypical "old people" locale, but I will find people my age in more places.  :)

With a lot of acreage to hunt racoons in the city.


Poor raccoons. :(

With a lot of acreage to hunt racoons in the city.



There are more racoons here in New York.

There are more racoons here in New York.


Of course there are, all the ones in my neighborhood have been hunted to death.

The older woman who lives across the street is a snowbird-meaning she goes to Florida every winter.




Cat

Of course there are, all the ones in my neighborhood have been hunted to death.



I think hunting is illegal here in NY.

I think hunting is illegal here in NY.


only in manhattan  ;)

only in manhattan  ;)


But what about in Queens?

But what about in Queens?


You're in luck Howard.  Raccoon can be hunted day or night starting next weekend.

http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/wildlife_pdf/08guidefurh.pdf

You're in luck Howard.  Raccoon can be hunted day or night starting next weekend.

http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/wildlife_pdf/08guidefurh.pdf


But they come out most likely after midnight,right about the time when we're asleep.

But they come out most likely after midnight,right about the time when we're asleep.


Become one with the racoon, nocturnal humans hunt better.

Become one with the racoon, nocturnal humans hunt better.


No Thanks.  ::)

my next door neighbor is a feisty 80 year old Peruvian that can be very nice and sweet and then at other times she can be a crabby old thing , especially when leaves from my trees cover her yard  ::)

i live in a court and even though I don't know my neighbors names, we always wave and greet each other and I will occassionaly have a brief conversation with them.

I'm semi friendly with some of them, but don't know any per se, beyond just saying the typical "Hey, how's it going" or "Good morning"-type smalltalk.

Ironically my favorite place in terms of neighbors was this one townhouse complex I lived at in 1994 with my mom (that was even better than my early childhood in the '80s for that aspect). Everyone was friendly there, and I probably was friendly with a quarter of the complex! Everyone from kids my age (I was 12 and 13 then) to younger twentysomething couples and some older folks too. There were even lots of cats I became friendly with too, that's how I met some of the people too! ;D I've never lived in another neighborhood like that since, and I miss that.

I've known my neighbors for almost 30 years and that would include Mark who my Father doesn't speak too anymore cause My Father cursed him out last year,Barry and Trudy who we've known for over 30 years and Andy who we've known for 25 years.

We aren't close to any of our neighbors. From the moment we moved in here, one of our neighbors started trouble with us (even though we had nothing to do with the accused incident of supposedly running into her car...which the police confirmed that it wasn't from our car). We now keep to ourselves and just ignore them. There are a few people (mainly older people) that I will wave and say hello to, and there are some children (from V's bus stop) and their mothers that I do talk to when I see them...but that's about it.

When we were young we grew up in an awesome neighborhood. We were surrounded by older people who really cared about us, we became good friends with most of them. There were a ton of children to play with...and it was just really fun. Neighborhoods aren't like that anymore.

Neighborhoods aren't like that anymore.

I agree with you Erin,neighbors come and go,some we don't speak to anymore cause of a grudge or fight,some pass away and some move to Florida,that's the way it is,unfortunately. :(

I've known my neighbors for almost 30 years and that would include Mark who my Father doesn't speak too anymore cause My Father cursed him out last year,Barry and Trudy who we've known for over 30 years and Andy who we've known for 25 years.


inquiring minds want to know... why did your dad curse him out?

inquiring minds want to know... why did your dad curse him out?



My neighbor Mark pissed him off and now he no longer speaks to him but Me or my Mother will because we have nothing against him.

New neighbors moving in next door.  Should I do something out of character and be neighborly?

New neighbors moving in next door.  Should I do something out of character and be neighborly?



Like what?  ???

New neighbors moving in next door.  Should I do something out of character and be neighborly?


Load, Lock, Aim...

Seeing as I bought my house last February, lived in a trashed-out, converted Greyhound bus that I borrowed from a friend in the driveway while some friends and relatives, albeit the ones who actually had something in their craniums besides hot air, and I fixed the place up and my dog and I moved in 3 months ago, I don't know very many of my neighbors, but the ones that I do know are very nice. For two, Eric and Debbie, who live across the street, gave me the 1982 Isuzu pickup that I mentioned in the "Ask me something" thread that Davester put out and in Nally's "Ask/Talk To Jeff About Anything" thread so that I could haul trash with it despite the fact that it had two different types of tire on it (which is very dangerous, I got them changed on the afternoon of 11/8/08, which was about 2 hours before my friend's rather bizarre and somewhat frightening 30th birthday party), and they also gave me a bag of grass seed that I used to reseed the lawn that was so overgrown that it had to be torn up with a rototiller. Another one who is more than worthy of mentioning is a 73-year-old veteran of the Korean and Vietnam wars named Wallace, often helps me out with fixing my cars and truck, doing repair jobs around the house that I cannot do (any house that has been abandoned since the twilight years of the Reagan administration and then rapidly renovated 20-odd years later is bound to need help for a good long while), and he also helped me with hauling all of the old tires, trash, broken glass, concrete chunks, old appliances and dead animals that had accumulated as a result of the house itself and the corner lot that it sits on being used as a garbage dump. Another couple happens to be two lesbians who seem to hate everything that is good about America and who torment me endlessly for just about every reason conceivable. Lastly, another good neighbor happens to be my good friend Aisha, who was not at the aforementioned birthday party and who tipped me off to the very inexpensive yet severely overgrown and garbage-laden house that I bought. Most of my other neighbors are either troublemakers, very old people who seldom leave their homes and Hispanic, Southeast Asian and East Indian individuals and families, most of whom speak little or no English and some of whom I suspect to be illegal immigrants. Therefore, I can say that I know SOME of my neighbors. 
Did I mention that many of my aforementioned elderly neighbors (not including Wallace) are on oxygen and still smoke cigarettes?
8)

Another couple happens to be two lesbians who seem to hate everything that is good about America and who torment me endlessly for just about every reason conceivable.

I'd love to be their neighbors.  ;)

I'd love to be their neighbors.  ;)


I don't think you would, Howard, they let their two unneutered male Pit Bulls run free because they think that leash laws are cruel and unfair, (actually, nothing is fair in this world, and those dogs have not only bit me regularly, but they have chased my dog and have gnawed on her too), they call me a narcissist, a "stupid Arkie" (I am originally from Arkansas), a slut and many other things that range from simply annoying to very obscene (including profanity and oaths in Latin and French), and they make fun of me for driving a very large and rather decrepit 1978 Dodge Magnum that gets about 8 miles per gallon in town and 14 on the freeway yet frequently drive around in a Winnebago that gets half as much mileage as my Magnum, if that. They also think that men are evil and that any grocery store other than Whole Foods, Wild Oats or a local organic-foods store are run by greedy billionaires and sell things that could poison oneself after eating X-amount of anything edible there.  ;)

I don't think you would, Howard, they let their two unneutered male Pit Bulls run free because they think that leash laws are cruel and unfair, (actually, nothing is fair in this world, and those dogs have not only bit me regularly, but they have chased my dog and have gnawed on her too), they call me a narcissist, a "stupid Arkie" (I am originally from Arkansas), a slut and many other things that range from simply annoying to very obscene (including profanity and oaths in Latin and French), and they make fun of me for driving a very large and rather decrepit 1978 Dodge Magnum that gets about 8 miles per gallon in town and 14 on the freeway yet frequently drive around in a Winnebago that gets half as much mileage as my Magnum, if that. They also think that men are evil and that any grocery store other than Whole Foods, Wild Oats or a local organic-foods store are run by greedy billionaires and sell things that could poison oneself after eating X-amount of anything edible there.  ;)





On second thought,maybe not. :o

Well...those who live on the north side of us, we have known the entire time we've lived in our neighborhood; they are nice people. And those who live on the south side of us, moved in about four years ago. They're good people too....but the family that lived there before them was a young married couple who were uptight snobs.

when it comes to neighbors I'll just quote Bilbo Baggins...

"I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve."

Our little cul-de-sac is a mixed bag.  The lady across the street, Eloise, is old and alone, she's very sweet and always smiles and waves and sometimes comes out to talk with us when we're shooting hoops in the driveway.  She's pretty active for her age and gets out a lot with her friends.  She is really nice to Matthew and thinks he's an Angel (LOL!!) She always tells me he is the best behaved kid she knows. Awwww. She'll be going up to Vermont for the rest of the year in a month or so.

The man next door is a widower about 10 years older than me.  I think he's in the beginning of a mid life crisis or something because he has a new yellow Corette, a really nice truck and just had a pool put in his backyard.  He manages a really nice furniture store in town and makes big $$. He's very cool-he gave Matthew his moveable basketball hoop-new it was about $250 and he just gave it to us! He also helped me put my mailbox back up after the trash collector truck knocked it down.  He has a grown daughter that has 2 little kids and they lived with him for awhile, but she is T-R-O-U-B-L-E...but she moved out just before Thanksgiving, so it's quiet again.  He also has a great dog, Buddy, that acts as our watchdog too.

On our other side is a weird guy.  He's my age and has a girlfriend that lives with him on and off.  He works at night so we don't see him much. He has a pool in his backyard, but he puts no water in it-on purpose.  ??? He's the one that never spoke a word to us in a year until the turtle showed up in our backyard.  I told him the deal, we were told the turtle is protected and endangered so hands off.  Since then he's been friendly and even trimmed back the nasty wild rosebush that comes through our side of the fence and gets thorns on anyone who passes through to go to the back gate. Matthew is still suspicious of him, though.

Next door to Eloise is a family that has a little girl Matthew's age. This child is an absolute terror. She's bossy and snotty and the mother just lets her go out and has no clue where she is half the time. The stepfather is a great guy, he's just married to a whackjob.  I get a long with him, but I never see the mother at all. She's there, but it's like she stays in the house 24-7..I don't let Matthew play with Tori because when I used to, he would come home with this attitude-then she purposely blamed him when she took her stepdad's tools and lost them.  I kindly told the guy Matthew didn't do it and I think it's best they don't hang out anymore.  He was cool about it. We see each other every morning at Starbucks in passing and he's always nice.  I feel sorry for him having to deal with that family.  Oh, and they're the ones that have all the cats running around the neighborhood because the Mom is too cheap to spay and neuter the ones that are born every 6 months!

We also have a Tampa Police officer at the end of the street and a couple of retired couples. Don't really know them, though.

Most of the neighbors we have are basically Chinese And Japanese and the rest of our neighbors are the ones we've known for well over 20 years.

I don't really know any of my neighbors that well. I've lived in my current home almost 15 years and I don't even really know my neighbor's names.  :o I say hello to them occasionally, but I'm not all that close to them. They did send sympathy card for me and my father when my mother passed away, but we're just not close. It's not like I go to thier house and eat dinner or anything.

We just co-exist on the same street.

Most of the neighbors we have are basically Chinese And Japanese and the rest of our neighbors are the ones we've known for well over 20 years.


so do you know the chinese and japanese ones at all?

so do you know the chinese and japanese ones at all?



Karen,some of them not all of them.