I just now read a thread about trick-or-treating (yes, I know it’s almost a month old; I’m trawling the Pit for stuff I didn’t read the first time around) and I noticed something kinda missing from the rants about rude, entitled TorTers. No one mentioned knowing any of the kids or their parents.
Now, I understand that some people live in “destination neighborhoods”, where the TorTers come from far afield. But surely that’s not the case with everyone. When I was a kid, my parents knew everyone who came to our door, kids, parents, or both. That was a great deterrent to rudeness: you’re not going to say “Aw, not this stuff!” to people who know who you are. So in the case of people who get an influx of uncostumed gimmegimmes, is this the only time you interact with your neighbors? Just curious.
Our neighborhood is located on an old colonial road and most people have some land. People tend to walk up and down the street and stop and chat. You can barely see our neighbors on either side but I know their family and they know ours. They do favors for us when we are away and we return the favor. Some of the neighborhood kids babysit for us We throw a neighborhood party once a year and some of our neighbors do the same so we definitely get to know one another. It is a nice an friendly neighborhood. I wouldn’t hesitate to let the kids wander around when they get older.
We really look forward to seeing our small friends knock on our door at Halloween. Our neighborhood is also a destination neighborhood, so the majority are kids we don’t know (and the more the merrier I say), but we do see a bunch of friends. I’m sure a large chunk of the kids are just coming from a few blocks away–I only know the kids on our street and the next one over, mostly. And some of our friends are coming from different neighborhoods too–the one across the main road or from out in the country. We know a bunch of people who live several miles out of town and who have no neighbors, and they often come to our neighborhood.
Well, that’s a bit incoherent, but you get the drift, right?
Not only was it incoherent, it didn’t answer the question properly. I know everyone on my street by sight, and we all wave to each other. There are 3 houses I don’t chat with fairly regularly, and the others I see and chat with fairly often and our kids play or we exchange cookies at Christmas or something. On the next street over, I know most of the kids, am friends with two families, and would not recognize the other parents with the exception of Kermit, who has no kids that I know of but is pretty noticeable what with the bright green vintage car and all.
Very small town, and I know about a third of them, er, us. Two families within a block are close friends, and the others we know well enough to stop and talk when we run into each other.
In Seattle, we knew who our neighbors were on each side, but not well enough to do much more than say hi, how are ya.
We just moved to a new housing development, and with house prices being what they are every other house belongs to a young married couple - both working full-time - so I never see anyone. I occasionally hear dogs barking.
Sort of, yes. We have a dog, so I’m often out walking with the dog, and meet people in our neighbourhood that way. I ‘know’ most of the other dog-owners. Having a dog just presents much more opportunity to meet your neighbours face-to-face, and dog-to-dog. If we meet up, occasionally we’ll walk the dogs around together, and chat. I’m actually a little bit shy, so having a cute little dog with me is a great ice-breaker.
We know the people on either side of us (we’re in a mobile home park, so the lots are longish and narrowish). Gardening and dogs–being *outside *is how we got to know the neighbours.
We know best those neighbors who have been here for a while. We make an effort to meet the new folks too, but if they haven’t been here at least 30 years, I still think of their place as “old so and so’s” place, not theirs.
I sometimes have trouble remembering the names of those folks who have been here less than 10 years, but I do make the effort to try to recall them.
We know the people on either side of us, five houses down on the west side and 3 down on the east. There are no across the street neighbors, since that is a golf course. We have double lots here, for the most part, so the “in the back” neighbor it fairly far away and behind a fence.
We are friendly for the most part with all. We are friends with the ones immediately to the west. The ones next to us on the eastside a well, not odd exactly, more like PIAs. I just smile and nod and keep going. They have no kids (thank you god) and so we don’t share a whole lot.
I grew up in a tiny little town, where we knew the neighbors for three or four blocks - if not personally, at least by name (“Oh, the Johnsons live there.”) I’ve lived in my current house in the city for 6 1/2 years, and I don’t know any of my neighbors, their names, or their kids. I see the old man next door mowing his lawn and we wave. I see the people directly across from us occasionally, and we wave. On the other side of our house, the neighbors are college kids, sharing a house, so the people living there change from time to time. We never see them.
Okay, so not all of you are total strangers to your neighbors! Because as I said, in the TorT threads, I got the impression that people were answering the door to people they didn’t know from a hole in the wall, and it got me to wondering how TorTing had even survived this long in that case.
But when it does come to TorT, do the kids ever say “Thank you, Mr. Mercotan” (assuming they say thank you at all)? My mom says half the fun for her was trying to figure out who unaccompanied and masked kids were.
I don’t think we’ve had trick or treaters here since 1963. And even then, they arrived by car. Nowadays, the local kids go to the nearest village to TorT (about 4 miles away).
Apartment dweller here. I’ve had one trick-or-treater in four Halloween’s here, though there have always been plenty of kids around. I think the parents take them to regular house neighborhoods.
I know my upstairs neighbor only from asking him to keep the noise the hell down. Another neighbor I talk to in the garage (he’s always elbow deep in an engine of some sort), but I’ve no idea where in the building he lives. Out of thirty apartments in the building, they’re the only ones I’ve done more than nod at in passing.
“Know” as in know which faces belong to which house? Yes.
“Know” as in, know names and/or enough details to hold a friendly discussion or even just some small chat when we pass? Well, I know Theresa next door. The rest of them I don’t know and I don’t care to know. Given that in the last three months I’ve seen one guy set his own porch on fire, and two or three separate incidences of neighbourhood lynch-mobs, with club locks and two-by-fours in hand, I don’t really feel inclined to get to know the rest of them.
This past Halloween, we opened the door to discover a gaggle of 4 or 5 young ladies—teenagers— in full makeup and costume, and with a chaperone in tow. They sang a show tune or two, and we gave them Snickers bars. They worked for peanuts.
I know a couple of dozen by name, but not anything else. They might come to me for a cup of cooking oil or change for the parking meters, but I know nothing about them, what they do or what their houses are like inside.
All my real friends are made through work.