I think that I am a bad neighbor. I don't actually know any of the residents of the 5 other houses on my street. Ok, that's not entirely true. I sorta know the Asian family that lives across the street... they own/operate Uncle Poons! We smile and wave at each other a lot. The grandfather rides his bike around and grows veggies in his backyard.
It is not entirely my fault that I don't know any of my neighbors! We were only the 3rd family to move on the street and two of the houses didn't even exist when we moved in. As new people have moved in I haven't figured out how to best approach them for the first time. Of course my dad thinks it is just terrible that I am not on first-name basis with everyone. Mama has stalked all of the neighbors through county tax records (which are freely available online) and found all their names... and how much they paid for their house.
I do have nicknames and assumed life stories for most of the neighbors though. There is the drunk old man with his sugar mama who may or may not be dealing drugs across the street. Converse and her husband were the young newlywed couple who got divorced like a year after moving in. He apparently left her because the only time we ever talked to her was when she asked if we had seen anyone at her house with a moving truck earlier that day... awkward! There is a family living next door with two kids - Co-ed and Larry Bird. I don't have a good feel for the 5th house, they just moved in earlier this year. Although they have those family stickers on one of their cars with two adults and two dogs.
So now that we have lived here for 3 years, I don't know how to go about meeting my neighbors. None of them really spend any time outside and I don't really want to just ring the doorbell and say "Hi!". Maybe I can just send everyone a Christmas card this year...
Do a little informal summer grill/cocktail party and invite them over!
ReplyDeleteI was the first to move in this new neighborhood. August of 1989. The first Christmas I invited all, about five families by then, to an informal evening with lots of good food. I had painted sweat shirts with a group of cute little kids figures that looked like each kid in the neighborhood. They were called the "Cardinal Hill Brat Pack". I still have the two sweat shirts that I made my kids and I have been told that the other parents kept theirs too.
ReplyDeleteAfter that I made a sketch of the lots (each about a acre) in our circle and started keeping up with their names and numbers. Well, I've always had a yard sale to help with spring cleaning. So... I started a neighborhood yard sale. I put the ad in the paper, put up all the signs and take printed information to all the neighbors about the sale...I talk to each one...I've kept up the yearly yard sale and the neighborhood lists. Almost 23 years later, I'm in the same house that I love. We have 19 families on our circle and I know each one. Just had the yard sale last weekend. Our newest neighbor participated and was so thankful for the copy of the information about her new neighbors. I'm glad I took the time to get to know
my neighbors. Thanks for making me remember good memories.
Linda Slone