Only the women’s sign was a bunch of the skirted variety and each one had her own speech balloon. The men’s room…just the one guy, not talking. I think Mrs. L has a few of the neighbors’ numbers, in other words. She’ll chat up complete strangers.
Back in the day people didn’t move around so much, and the phones all had wires. If you knew the last name and knew the approximate address, you could get it from the phone book. Sure, some had unlisted numbers, but the operator can get you those. Unpublished numbers? Those bastards… Now the guy across the street may not even have a local area code. I know I’d keep my number if I moved across country.
If it isn’t too urgent there’s also a neighborhood Facebook group, a NextDoor group, etc.
I think for a long time people didn’t trust others and you wouldn’t ask for phone numbers. But now people are starting to put things in the front yard—fire pits, , comfortable chairs, swings for the kids, etc. It’s like the era of neighboring may return.
My apartment manager who lives in the next building has my phone number. So does downstairs neighbor–I gave it to her asking to call or text if my music ever got too loud (haven’t heard from her yet )
I let them both know when I take off on road trips and text photos of scenic spots to them in lieu of postcards.
I had only lived in my current neighborhood a couple of months before the pandemic hit, which really cut down on the meet the neighbors thing. My neighborhood is 40 houses, it’s part of a larger HOA but physically separated from it by some ponds and creeks ( the entire neighborhood was a golf course until about 15 years ago, the first houses on my street went up five years ago.)
But I had attended a community board meeting a few months before I moved here and I met my next door neighbor. My family had met him previously when he asked for permission to attach his fencing to ours. We actually did exchange phone numbers via text “just in case” but we’ve never used them.
I’ve talked to my next door neighbor on the other side across the yard a few times, she seems really nice.
But most of my contact with my neighbors is via our Facebook page. Probably only about a third of the households are represented on the page, but through that I know a lot about my neighbors. It’s a pretty diverse group- one thing about living in a brand new neighborhood is that there are no long time residents and a majority of my neighbors are new to the area. But I certainly have gotten to “know” some of my neighbors through the page. There are several outspoken liberals, including a black couple active in the racial justice movement and a gay male couple, and at least one obnoxious Trumpist.
We allegedly have an annual block party, although it was canceled this year so I’ve never been to one. It’ll be nice to put some faces to the Facebook posts.
We have the phone numbers of the occupants of the three houses that surround us, and it has come in handy on several occasions. Our neighbours on one side built the house on land that used to be the garden of our house - before we bought it - but we had their details from the start, to liaise over exactly how the land would be divided. Since then we haven’t had a great deal of contact, they seem perfectly nice people but tend to keep to themselves. I was very glad I had their number when I tried to help carry a large pane of glass that delivered to them while they were away - and I dropped it. Luckily the company made good even though I admitted full responsibility.
On our other side, we’re very friendly with our neighbours since they have 2 kids close in age to ours. But it was about a year from when they moved in before we properly introduced ourselves/spent time in one another’s house - like any friendship, it does take effort. Well worth it though.
With our back neighbours, we have very little contact but the year before last I dropped a note through their door asking if they would mind me cutting back a tree in their garden that was overhanging our garden - I probably could have gone ahead without their permission, legally, but the easiest way for me to do it was to actually climb into their tree, and in any case I wanted to be a good neighbour and ask. They were fine with it, and then a few weeks later I was very pleased I’d given them my number as they texted me late at night to say they noticed the interior light of our car had accidentally been left on. We would have woken up to a flat battery for sure had they not done that.
We also have phone numbers for 2 or 3 of the houses opposite, for various reasons, and a couple of others a bit further up the road. The community spirit here is quite strong; we are very lucky.
The only people with my phone number are immediate family, people at work, the doctor and the dentist.
Not counting my numbers, I know about five numbers and one of them is 867-5309.
This reminded me of a Jewish scientist I knew who was frequently invited to speak at conferences in Salt Lake City, and always greeted his audience by saying “it’s great to be back in Utah, since it’s basically the only place in the world where I am considered a gentile.”
I’ve lived in my house for almost 18 years and I know my immediate neighbors on either side and three across the street. The old lady directly across from me brought me cookies when I moved in and we exchanged numbers. She called me once to tell me I’d left my headlights on. I called her this past summer to find out why strangers were going into the house of her next door neighbor. I’d missed where police had come to do a welfare check and found her dead. That’s information I normally would have gotten in person from her before covid. She’s in her 90s so doesn’t come outside like she used to. So I was glad I had her number.
Several months ago, my neighbor to the east had several items stolen from his back patio. The next day I saw him outside and he asked if I had heard anything. As it happened, someone had thrown acorns at my dining room window about the same time (that’s another story). He works nights and I stay up very late so we exchanged numbers in case any other strange things happened.
I live in a century-old house which has been divided into four units. The biggest apartment is currently vacant, but I’ve known two sets of its tenants (since I’m in Lafayette, Indiana, it’s not surprising that most of the people who live in the building are students at, or otherwise connected with, Purdue University, and turnover is frequent). The basement is occupied by a woman I’ve talked to once, when she was placing her garbage in a toter as I was fulfilling my unofficial duty as “trash captain” by taking the toters to the curb.
My next-door neighbor “Amy” (our units are beside each other on the second story) and I have each been in the other’s apartment. She recently adopted a rescue German Shepherd mix and is trying to train him to the point where she and I can walk our dogs together instead of making sure they don’t cross paths (mine is generally calm, but will bark if barked at). I’ve never exchanged phone numbers with any of my co-tenants, but Amy seems the most likely candidate.
As for the people in the larger subdivided house to the immediate north and the more traditional apartment building to the south, I’ve met exactly one in the two years I’ve lived here, and had a single conversation with her.
Exactly the same here. My next door neighbors to the north are delightful and the one to the south is running a low-level flophouse. The good neighbors and I have a snug relationship, collecting mail while away and extending snow shoveling/blowing. I’ve exchanged numbers with the good neighbors and we’ve traded a few texts. I’ve also had some txt exchanges with a few others related to our (formerly) annual block party official duties.
Yes I have the phone numbers of all two of my neighbors, & they have mine. I also have the number of the neighbor one mile down the road. It is one of the perks and/or responsibilities of living “out in the country”.
When we could use some help, it is only a phone call away.
Yesterday I helped chase a cougar away from the neighbor’s livestock. Last weekend we cut up a tree that had fallen across our road due to an excessive snow load. I had skidded it off to the side of the road the day it fell so we could drive past it.
I can not imagine not knowing my neighbors, but then I only have two of them.
I’ve got phone numbers of a few of the kids who live in our apartment complex (classmates of the grandsprogs). And I am FB friends with their parents. So far it’s only been to organise sleepovers and rides to school.
We have a whatsapp group of about 20 houses in my street, so I guess that’s a yes. Before lockdown last March, I had about two phone numbers for my nearest neighbours.
My bad neighbor opted out of the neighborhood party and information exchange. She died a couple years ago, and her son, evil developer guy, is building a giant mcmansion where her house used to be. I expect when he sells it the neighborhood will approach the new owner about joining us, though.
Our building has 8 apartments, only 1 of them is rented out to someone else. We have the email addresses of everybody and the phone numbers of some and even the cell phone of one or two.
My parents have been in the same house for more than 50 years. They have always had neighbors who had one of their keys, and vice versa. I think they have 3 keys from the neighbors, at the moment. I’m even friends with some of their neighbors on Facebook.
One of the neighbors has told my parents that, if they move, the neighbors will move to where they are. It’s a good neighborhood and even during the lockdown, everybody sat in their driveways and chatted. Not quite the same as the normal Christmas and summer get-togethers, but everyone’s in contact, even the neighbors who aren’t as neighborly.
I gave my phone number to my upstairs neighbor as well as to the couple next door. I certainly wouldn’t mind if they chose to use it in a social manner. I historically have never really gotten to know many of the neighbors particularly well wherever I have lived, but when I moved here last year, I really wanted to make an effort to change that for once. (Leave it to me to choose a pandemic to suddenly develop the urge to mingle.) But if none of them turn out to want to be pals, that’s fine. I just didn’t want there to be a situation where, you know, a bunch of ravenous bears had decided to invade my apartment, and nobody could let me know about it because they simply had no idea how to contact me.
Just two. We have an informal home-security arrangement with two of our neighbors. Any one of the trio informs the others when out of town, and we actually stage-manage houses to appear occupied and in use. This includes pretend yard work, watering (moving hoses around) and parking various cars in each other’s drives. We also collect mail/packages and move garbage bins to and from the street on the assigned days.
No. My wife is facebook friends with our next-door female friend though. That’s how they communicate if she doesn’t want to go over there if there’s a problem.
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