View Full Version : How well do you know your neighbours?
percy toboggan
11-Jun-09, 19:57
The idea for this thread came after seeing a feature on local news - t.v. tonight.
20 years ago Beeb North-West camped out near a street in Preston to film the community going about it's business. This week it went back.
Most people agreed community spirit had suffered. Many local shops in the street had closed down - the local pub was hanging on. The question 'how well do you know your neighbours' was asked.
Are outlying regions like Caithness more friendly? Probably I'd guess.
Next door to us live people we know we can rely on...and they on us. We've been here as long as they have - 33 years. Never had a fall out...apart from drunken political barnies when bladdered many moons ago. We used to socialise lots but not for about 25 years now! Always buy their grandkids presents at Christmas - talk regularly...they even bought me a couple of bottles to speed my recovery. We help each other out in small ways.
On the other side - also 33 years we say hello and might engage in conversation occassionally but otherwise we don't bother much with them. The wider community spirit is almost non-existent. In '77 and '81 we had great 'street' parties for Royal events - just an excuse to get drunk and party really but they worked well - with a day off work thrown in. I can't imagine that happening now. People - unlcuding myself- seem more insular.
I know a few of the local kids by name and they're all pretty good.Polite etc....most inside by nightfall...it's really quiet during term time and winter.
What's the crack around your way?
ShelleyCowie
11-Jun-09, 20:09
I get on pretty well with my neighbours. To one side of me is a nice lassie just slightly older than me with 2 wee kids. We get on good, buy each others kids a little thing at easter and bdays etc. The other side is a couple with 2 children about my age. Get on fine with them too.
Then across the road is Bobinovich, he is another story! [lol] and i also know another person across the road that i get on fine with.
Thats all i know from my entire street! :eek: Have lived here for about 2 years now. But my OH has lived here for about 6.
christina
11-Jun-09, 20:21
Get on really well with all my neighbours in my street:). Have a man next door hes really nice and has a good sense of humour. Another lady and her hubby I know well as used to live next door to there Mum in my old house.
And the other neighbours work with my sister so know them all. And the guy across the road I used to chat to when I worked in a bar. They are a good bunch of neighbours even got presents from them all when I had our Son. So we must all get on well.
It really does make a difference to have nice neighbours, so our street is a happy street:D.
Kevin Milkins
11-Jun-09, 20:33
We have good nieghbours, (thank god) we have lived here for two and half years and all is fine and quiet.
:Razz We had a nosey nieghbour when we lived in South Wales and it made my life a misery:(.
On the strength of that dreadfull experience I make a big effort to be nice to people.
Alice in Blunderland
11-Jun-09, 21:31
I have no problem at all with my neighbours.
On the odd occasion they will wander into the garden to see if the grass is greaner on our side but after a bit of coaxing and a shove here and there we can manage to get them to go back to their own field. Pesky sheep Ill stick it in the freezer next time. :lol:
The rabbits well what can I say aboout them pests, if anybody out there wants to do some shooting just let me know. At this momment they see it as the ultimate challenge to gain entry into my vegetable patch. :roll:
All the other folks around us Ive known for years and are great. I can borrow from them ask them to do anything and it would be done. I would offer the same in return to them.:)
Our worst ever neighbour was a piano repairer and Buddhist zealot called Mr.Anthony Chin.
He was our downstair neighbour in Montreal where we lived in an otherwise terrific, old-fashioned, apartment building right across from Westmount City Hall (if anyone on the Org knows where that is. Golach and Canuck likely do.)
It was Mr. Chin's habit to rise early - 5:00 in the morning so he could salute the dawn with chanting and the ringing of tiny bells.
We would thump on the floor to try to get him to shut up.
Instead he retaliated by banging a gong.
It was a regular dawn chorus.
One night there was a knock on the door and there was Mr. Chin, laden with carpeting material.
He suggested we might like to put down the carpets as noise insulation because he was finding our walking around to be excessively loud.
We told him this was an elderly building and prone to creak. And would he please keep down the chants and the bells etc. We also reminded him that his piano students' efforts had succeeded in making it impossible for either my wife or myself to ever again enjoy Chopin waltzes.
So it was a stand-off.
Winter passed into Spring and it was Summer and all accompanied by the Chin version of Tubular Bells puntuated by thumping on ceilings and a series of alarming thuds and crashes downstairs. We think he was attempting yoga, or worse, the martial arts.
Perhaps he's going to beat you up, my wife said, thoughtfully.
Mercifully, an alternative to my taking up ju-jitsu beckoned.
Mr. Chin decided to repair his grand piano - which was horribly out of tune. He apparently decided to strip some wood off the top. This invoved dousing the instrument in gasoiline.
The building began to fill with gasoline fumes accompanied by wild hammering as Mr. Chin OD'd.
My wife and I and another couple of neighbours were on the roof of the building, preparing a barbecue - an activity we rapidly ceased as the air filled with fumes. It was about four in the afternoon and inspiration struck.
I snuck off downstairs and called emergency services. (The fire atatioin was all of 10 minutes distant).
Then we sat back to enjoy the show. A satisfying wail of klaxons heralded the arrival of three fire engines and couple of pumping trucks.
No need to tell the firemen where to go. They could smell the situation. They rushed in - helmets and axes and huge electric fans at the ready. A couple of minutes and Mr. Chin was escorted from the building with a pompier on either side. (I think pompier is the Quebec name for a fireman, or it may refer to a fire truck).
Anyway, you get the picture.
There was no more trouble with Mr. Chin - oh, sure there was the occasional chant and muffled tinkling now and again but he was licked and he knew it.
Then we went to Toronto leaving him free to misbehave with a new set of neighbours....
we moved in feb and its lek a mortuary, just depressing.:~(
ShelleyCowie
11-Jun-09, 23:06
we moved in feb and its lek a mortuary, just depressing.:~(
i have already told ya! get a house over my way, partys every day and night! Wooo! lol. I mean tea partys of course! ;)
i have already told ya! get a house over my way, partys every day and night! Wooo! lol. I mean tea partys of course! ;)
right which one of yor nice neighbours you going to evict so i can move in lol.
ShelleyCowie
11-Jun-09, 23:12
right which one of yor nice neighbours you going to evict so i can move in lol.
Bobinovich! :Razz Do you want to tell him the news or shall i? Lol
Bobinovich! :Razz Do you want to tell him the news or shall i? Lol
will leave that to you lol, tell him he can come and live here, but warn him its a party city NOT lol.
oldmarine
12-Jun-09, 05:31
I enjoy my neighbors. I live in a gated town-house community where we are all close together. I like others get a lot of help from living close together.
We have been here for 2 years and get on with most of our neighbours. Only had a problem with one who let thier friends park thier cars outside our house taking up 3 spaces with 2 cars and ed off to Orkney for 2 weeks.
kmahon2001
12-Jun-09, 12:00
The wider community spirit is almost non-existent. In '77 and '81 we had great 'street' parties for Royal events - just an excuse to get drunk and party really but they worked well - with a day off work thrown in. I can't imagine that happening now. People - unlcuding myself- seem more insular.
I know a few of the local kids by name and they're all pretty good.Polite etc....most inside by nightfall...it's really quiet during term time and winter.
What's the crack around your way?
I've lived here for almost a year and I get on well with my neighbours too. I'm on "chatting-about-the-weather" terms with the two neighbours either side of me and also three of the neighbours a bit further along, but I wouldn't say I actually know any of them.
I agree with Percy. The wider community spirit doesn't exist in most places any more. Getting on with your neighbours is not the same as knowing them or being friends with them. Smiling and saying 'hello' and discussing the weather isn't being friends. I must admit that if I saw most of the people in my street in any other environment, such as shopping in Thurso, I wouldn't even recognise them. I only actually recognise them now because of the fleeting glance I get of them as I say 'good morning' as they come out of their front door on the way to work, shop or socialise elsewhere.
I'm not saying this is because the neighbours are not friendly enough, they are all willing to chat briefly, I just think this is the way we've all become - as Percy says, insular. I would find it hard to know how to break through the initial surface politeness to actually get to know these people.
Communities have gone because all our lives are lived outwith our local areas. Our jobs are all at least a decent drive away, the supermarkets are a drive away, all social venues (with the exception of the odd pub) are a drive away. We live our lives a drive away, then we return to our homes, shut the door on the world and relax at home.
If there were more local jobs, shops and social venues, people may then be encouraged to live their lives with their neighbours, who would then become friends and neighbours. It's a sort of Catch 22, because jobs, shops and social venues will only become available if there is a market for them but people will continue to travel to these all the while they are not available locally.
I moved out of Caithness almost 3 yrs ago and went from knowing everyone in the Cul De Sac where we lived and always knowing someone when Shopping Night out etc to not a soul here
We have ended up living next door to a lovely family who are very friendly and I know I can rely on them if needed we look out for each others houses if away for hols weekend etc
the first Xmas we were here and only after 3 months moved in to the Area all the other 14 houses popped a Xmas card through the letter box with names and house numbers and a lovely welcome message I thought it was a nice touch
As we will live in a Suburb and have all the usual shops amenties etc I found everyone very friendly and chatty and its amazing the amount of people I have met living here that belong to Caithness
but In answer to Percys thread I still think the feeling of a true neighbourly feeling like when you were growing up and knew everyone in the street and everyone looked out for each other and helped each other etc is in the past
We have lived here for eight years and I have never been over the doorstep of either set of neighbours houses.
most of the folk on our street are brilliant apart from the odd couple,most of them say hi on the the passing or stop for a chat if we are out in the front garden.all this makes it even better as we were told by a lot of folk it wasn't a good street!coming up on 5 years since we moved here and apart from 1 incident that was dealt with promptly by the local police i can't fault it.
where i live the neighbour on both sides are great .fine and peaceful street .
forevera123
13-Jun-09, 03:43
i really like to be close to my neighbours, but i don't know how to do it? i have been in the street about 2years, it seems everyone so nice there,but most people there seems to stick to themselves. i hope my neighbours are close like friends can go out for shopping, socializing, or meeting up for a chat. :lol::lol:
i luv where i am now, quiet, peaceful street. and nice,friendly neighbours. if they could always leave the place out side of our house for our parking, that would be perfect!:D
I enjoy my neighbors. I live in a gated town-house community where we are all close together. I like others get a lot of help from living close together.
I've often wondered about those gated communities in the States. Can anyone live in them provided they can afford it or do prospective residents need background checks or pass an interview to get a house?:confused
Is it like Stepford Wives? :confused
percy toboggan
13-Jun-09, 09:25
Thanks folks for the interesting replies.
We are virtual neighbours on 'ere and I think a few sparks might fly if we all lived in the same street but hey! it would be inteersting and for the most part we'd all get on.
(He predicted optimistically)
I don't know my neighbours on either side, we say hello and thats it. I'm especially annoyed with the new neighbours adjoining my house-they are cutting down trees at the bottom of their garden.....I've tried hugging them,(the trees, not the neighbours), to no avail. However my annoyance is tempered by the fact the lady is a cracking wee brunette. ;) :Razz
I don't know my neighbours on either side, we say hello and thats it. I'm especially annoyed with the new neighbours adjoining my house-they are cutting down trees at the bottom of their garden.....I've tried hugging them,(the trees, not the neighbours), to no avail. However my annoyance is tempered by the fact the lady is a cracking wee brunette. ;) :Razz
Eye candy for you then ;)
tonkatojo
13-Jun-09, 12:49
We have good nieghbours, (thank god) we have lived here for two and half years and all is fine and quiet.
:Razz We had a nosey nieghbour when we lived in South Wales and it made my life a misery:(.
On the strength of that dreadfull experience I make a big effort to be nice to people.
Rather strange/weird you lived "30 years" in England and no mention of them, I cant believe they were all, that bad.
Kevin Milkins
13-Jun-09, 15:00
Rather strange/weird you lived "30 years" in England and no mention of them, I cant believe they were all, that bad.
What is strange or weird? We moved from Wales to England in about 1974 and lived in various parts depending where my job took me.
We lived for 25 years in Shropshire, in the same house and had various nieghbours come and go and got on well with all of them.
We then sold up and bought a house back in Wales and embarked on a tour of Europe in a campervan and did all the things we would have liked to have done as youngsters, but could never afford it.
When we came home from our trip, BACK TO WALES the nieghbours there were a nightmare to get along with and now we live in Wick and the nieghbours are fine.
tonkatojo
13-Jun-09, 16:45
What is strange or weird? We moved from Wales to England in about 1974 and lived in various parts depending where my job took me.
We lived for 25 years in Shropshire, in the same house and had various nieghbours come and go and got on well with all of them.
We then sold up and bought a house back in Wales and embarked on a tour of Europe in a campervan and did all the things we would have liked to have done as youngsters, but could never afford it.
When we came home from our trip, BACK TO WALES the nieghbours there were a nightmare to get along with and now we live in Wick and the nieghbours are fine.
This is rather different from your first response, or would the fact your neighbours in England being OK for 25 year embarrass you in your first reply to this thread.
Kevin Milkins
13-Jun-09, 16:53
This is rather different from your first response, or would the fact your neighbours in England being OK for 25 year embarrass you in your first reply to this thread.
You have lost me completly and I have absoulutely no idea of what you are trying to imply.
oldmarine
14-Jun-09, 06:14
I've often wondered about those gated communities in the States. Can anyone live in them provided they can afford it or do prospective residents need background checks or pass an interview to get a house?:confused
Is it like Stepford Wives? :confused
Rheghead: If you can afford the priice of the house you buy it and pay the Home Owners Association (HOA) dues. The dues, in turn, pay for the various necessities i.e., swimming pool utility expenses, trash pickup, telephone for the electronic directory, landscaping, and other related expenses. I did not have an interview nor a background check.
I never saw Stepford Wives so am not acquainted with it. :confused
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