Do you know your neighbors? Is it just me?

by neverendingjourney 37 Replies latest watchtower scandals

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  not bitter

  I live in a suburban area in the UK (Wales) and we know almost all of our neighbours. We all chat outside regularily when coming home from work or shopping. We take it in turns to look after each others pets when going on holiday. When we go away I have a choice of asking 4 different people to look after my animals and that includes letting my chickens out each morning and locking them up at nght which is an inconvenience but they still do it.

  I cook meals for the old folk occassionally. We socialise and attend birthdays, weddings and funerals of each other.

  The age range is varied from older retired couples to families with young children.

  I think having children helps as they tend to make friends easily and call for each other to play and therefore the parents make friends. However, we knew everyone very well in our road prior to having children.

  OP - perhaps you are just unlucky and have ignorant neighbours with no manners
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  Frazzled UBM

  I just bopught a house in suburban South East London (very ethnically mixed) and my neighbours introduced themselves immediately and we are on great terms. At our old place the lady next door was nice but my wife would not invite her over for afternoon tea despite my suggesting it on a number or of occasions (JW phobia of worldly people maybe). Also the neighbour across the street at the old place was very brusque when I knocked on the door with my son to say hello and avoided us the whole time - not sure what was going on there. Anyway that seemed to be an exception and in general neighbours in London seem friendly. I come from Australia and have always had good relatioships with the neighbours.
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  FlyingHighNow

  Where I live, it's the culture for people to be very to themselves and hard to get to know. It's very unlike the culture I grew up with in the south. There is a very predominant dutch culture and it's very conservative. This is not a place where you can just chat with a stranger in the grocery store.

  I am a white, middle aged lady. Do you know who the friendliest people are, around here? Hispanic people. Usually HIspanic people will smile and talk with me. I have come to accept that the people are good people, they are just very conservative when it comes to being outgoing to sharing.
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  James Brown

  I have lived in the same neighborhood since 81.

  I will wave and say hi to my neighbors but I don't talk to them.

  I like it that way.

  My wife will talk to many of the neighbors and I like that also.

  I have never been overly friendly to my neighbors even since childhood.

  I don't know if it is because I was always a witness and they were always of the evil world.

  Or I am just not very friendly to strangers.

  I think I am just not very friendly and I always have something to do.

  That is why I never liked meetings.

  It was like burning daylight and I never felt I had time to kill, foolishly.

  Also I have lived in Florida since 81 which is a state of transplants with no strong

  regional culture or oneness.

  Since 81, I have probably met less than 10 people,

  excluding children, who were born in florida.
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  Band on the Run

  I tried very hard to make friends in PA. The NY people did more interesting things. Lois' suggestion is wonderful. I invited immediate neighbors over during the holidays to share some cookies/cake and alcohol. When people invited me for this sort of thing in NY, I felt I had to attend. It is important to share notes about the building and general area. You never know that you might find out info that will help with work. It was obligatory during law school and practice. No one was invited to be the closest friend of my entire life. I splurged on my Christmas tree. People I did not know would ring my buzzer, announce that they were a friend of my friend, and ask if they could see my tree.

  I was turned down numerous times by numerous people. The food I offered was first-rate. Entertaining is a skill that improves with practice.

  One would think that rural PA would have friendlier people than in Manhattan. No way. All these magazines and show pitch entertaining. I had five etiquette books. The only thing that worked were pot luck dinners at church.
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  Pams girl

  Wales........if I fart in the night, the neighbours know about it. This is the place that Dai Bread knows how many times Evans the milk has satisfied his wife the past week, and Jones the steam tells Dai Coffin the undertaker that Dai's father has died in splendor and digity up the men's club with a pint in his hand and finished it as his heart beat its last without spilling a drop, BEFORE DAI knew his father was dead....

  Read "Under Milk Wood" by Dylan Thomas. Yeah, like that.
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  nugget

  Didn't Jones the steam drive Ivor the engine?
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  Pams girl

  He DID INDEED Nugget...PEESSHH-TI-COO, PEESHHH-TI-COO.....