I drop by on my best freind unanounced all the time. She works from home, so is often there. I will stop in if I’m driving by. She is less then 2 minutes off the route I do alot of traveling on. If she isn’t there I move along. She’ll call me if I don’t stop by for a while(week or so) wanting to know whats up.
I have one freind who I’ll stop by his house on sundays, it is a hang out and watch football or what not day for him. He doesn’t mind.
For most family members I’ll call when I’m in their area and ask if they want to do lunch or something.
A few people I know I’ll stop by at their workplace to bullshit for a while. This is only in cases where they tend to desire such an event to happen.
Anyone else I wouldn’t consider dropping in on them.
I don’t mind when people drop in on me. I’m rarely at home so chances of catching me there when I’m awake are very slim.
Normaly for worK I’m just at my shop while loading up for a job so it would be hard to find me there too.
If someone thought it was ok to stop by my jobsites I’d be pretty unhappy about it as I’m typicaly working at customers houses were they live.
I get drop bys all the time, but I don’t invite people in. If they want a cup of oil or eggs for a cake, etc they wait on the steps. My house is never neat enough to entertain, so I always go out for that.
Never. And I grew up immersed in a culture where it was the norm, which could be why I hate it so much. I don’t want people dropping by me unexpectedly, either. I’ve got all the company I need, usually, in my SO, and while I do see my friends regularly it’s always planned.
My sister lives in my neighborhood and occasionally will drop by without calling, but usually she calls.
No one else that we are close enough to that dropping in would be an option lives near us. Everyone is at least 15 minutes away. I always call. Why take the chance they aren’t home.
In NYC, I would die of shock if someone dropped by, nor would it ever occur to me to do it myself.
Our summer place is in a small town, and dropping by is common. Almost by definition, if you are at your summer place you are on vacation, so it’s not as if anything else is likely to be going on. More often than not, we’re out on the patio having a beer so we assume people will see us and drop by. I would be almost offended if I learned later that a friend was on our street and didn’t stop over. We’re also close to the town beach, and a lot of times people will drop by to use our bathroom or throw something on our grill.
My aunt is famous for people dropping by. She loves it and her house is always ready in case. I dropped by once to find a crowded house, and had a sandwich and a drink and a 20 minute conversation before I realized my aunt wasn’t even HOME, but the house was filled with other people who had dropped by.
Nope. I don’t like it happening to me and I don’t do it to others. That’s living in a city though. My mum lives in a little farming village, and there is a steady stream of people knocking on the door (or just walking in). It’s nice and friendly in a way, but I’m too much of an uptight city boy to be able to honestly say that it doesn’t annoy me at all. It does, especially when I was just about to kick off my shoes and watch telly or something, and the next thing I know I’m roped into hours of cooking, eating and drinking (which is fine when I’m ready for it). IMHO, bringing a sixpack with you doesn’t make it automatically okay.
In my hometown, I did it a lot. I usually “dropped by” when I was bored to see what friends were doing or to say hello. It was a very small town and if you knew the people well, it wasn’t a big deal. I know a lot of people stop at my parents (still, although this happened when I lived there) because “all the cars were here” and that makes sense. If my car was there, people still stop by unexpected, especially people I haven’t seen in a long time but wouldn’t mind seeing, who are just in the area.
Down here, it’s a little different. It’s a bigger city and people often aren’t home (that I know) but we’re mostly in college. There are certian places I still “drop by” but there are only one or two that I can think of. I do stop at people’s work to say hello, often at places like the store I used to work at - although that situation might be considered different. I will stand around and talk to the workers and my old boss for 5-10 minutes while buying a soda and the paper. It just is nice to see how they are doing.
I do it to my parents all the time. They live on the way home from work and most of my mail still goes there, so I’ll stop by to pick it up or whatever. I’ll call if I need help with something and am stoping by for that, or if I’m planning on eating with them.
Around here (Key Largo) the atmosphere is very much like delph describes at her vacation house. We have neighbors all along our canal that we’re good friends with, and dropping by is a way of life. Usually you can see who’s out on their patio or whatever, and everyone just sort of comes and goes between places as desired. It’s kind of like a street long commune.
The funny thing is on Thanksgiving I needed a potato masher and my next door neighbor was away (he’s a pilot). I sent my husband on a recon mission to find one at his house, which he did. When my neighbor returned I apologized (because probably rooting around in someone’s house when they aren’t home isn’t cool with everyone, but it was Tgiving and I really wanted to mash my potatoes and couldn’t find my beaters) and returned his masher. His only response was “I have a potato masher?” and “at least you don’t do like Joe and borrow all of my rum!”
Being born and raised in the north, this is totally against every instinct I have about calling before dropping, but it’s the nature of the area and I’m growing very fond of it.
It’s my understanding that this practice is common in Albania. I would figure that it’s at least acceptable throughout Eastern Europe at least.
Someone mentioned college–when I lived in a dorm this was usually how my friends and I met up with each other, and that was in 2004 when all but one of us had a cellphone. It was great fun–it became a ritual for a particular friend to come knocking on my window for me to get out of my room, take a right into the hall, right to the common area, another right into the kitchen, and open up the back door for him. Man, that really brings back the memories…
The closest I got to a drop-in otherwise was with my friend/dealer in high school; one of us would park right outside the others’ place–usually about 20 minutes out of the way of any possible errand–and then call to say we’re in the neighborhood, fully assuming to be invited in, no matter how inconvenient for the other. We’ve interrupted each others’ most intimate moments and still been invited to hang out. That’s true friendship. For a while it was just the default that if one of us were free and wanted to do anything social we would drop by the other’s place, kick it for an hour or two, then put our heads together and figure out where we were going to go, whether or not to invite anyone, who to invite and, of course, which drugs to score. One summer I happened to live within walking distance of a movie theatre, so most days he would drop by my place–sometimes with his GF, a very close friend of mine as well–and we would smoke whatever we’d been smoking lately and walk to the movies. We saw the Chronicles of Riddick three times before we figured out the plot. Those were some times, lemme tell ya.
I don’t have anything like that now, and haven’t for about two and a half years. The only friend I’m close enough with for that kind of thing now lives clear across the metro area from me, and with her very controlling, very traditional (not Albanian!) mom. It would not go over well at all if I dropped by unannounced. I wouldn’t mind at all if she dropped in unannounced, but she has no transportation of her own atm and when we hang out I usually do the driving and we stick around her neighborhood. My place is an awful mess right now anyway, which is part of the reason I wouldn’t be cool with anyone else dropping in. But usually I’m fine with it–I left my dorm room door wide open whenever I was in for precisely that reason. I loved drop-ins.
FWIW, dropping in on anyone in my family would be considered totally inappropriate, although my parents would probably be OK with me just dropping in.
I ring my mum well in advance of visiting her - usually I visit on a Sunday and I know that she goes out with her hiking group on alternate Sundays, so I need to make sure I’m visiting on a day she’ll be at home. Of course, her diary is about as busy as mine so sometimes I’ll phone and ask when she’s free but it might be another month before we’re both free on the same Sunday.
She’s only about 65 miles away though, so it’s not a huge trip. If we decide to visit ‘im indoors’ relatives, we have to arrange it beforehand because they’re up in Scotland and it’s usually a 5+hr drive to get there. I’m not going all that way just to find they’ve gone out!
Most of my extended family enjoys the drop-in. My parents, however, do not really seem to appreciate random family members dropping by without notice. My mother wants time to make the house look nice (even though it looks fine to everyone else). The closest thing we will get to a drop-in is one of my distant relatives calling when they come into the tri-state. This does not really count though because they give her plenty of warning before coming over. She does not mind when my siblings and I drop in randomly and she extends the same courtesy to all of our former college roommates.
My relatives in PA love it when I drop by. I always get fed too so it’s something that I have taken to doing more often. When I go down to SC, my relatives would be offended if I did not drop by. If I am driving by someone’s house, it is expected that you stop by for at least some amount of time. The same goes for my Midwest family.
With regards to my friends, I really only have two that I use the surprise drop-in on. This is usually the best way to get in touch with them because one is always running about and the other never uses his cell phone. Personally, my friends drop in on me all the time because it is the best way to make plans with me. I like this but it only occurs when I am in Jersey. At school, in PA, none of my friends drop by.
I grew up in a small town where it was the norm, but I hate it. None of our friends would ever dream of doing it to us, and we would never dream of doing it to them. Even if it was a case of one person needing to return something, they would call ahead. There’s a strong likelihood I wouldn’t even answer the door.
With my mother, yes. With my grandparents when I was living in the same town, too.
I usually do it at a time when I know they’re likely to be home; if I think of it but I’m not sure they’ll be there, I call. I have keys to their houses and alternate plans.
With my married brother, not in a thousand years. SiL has control issues, anything unplanned drives her up a wall. She was angry for over a month when she found out her upcoming baby was the wrong gender :rolleyes:
