# New neighbours: Weird or ... Weirder? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 22, 2022, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-neighbours-weird-or-weirder/963226 "2022-04-22T06:33:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2022, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-neighbours-weird-or-weirder/963226/82 "2022-04-25T07:10:54Z")
Well, I finally met the new neighbour. He was working in his yard, when I pulled into my driveway. I had to do it, I walked up, extended my hand, and said, “Hi, I guess you’re the new neighbours.” He was fine, and we introduced ourselves. Seems nice. Probably mid-20s, so I guess his wife (whom I’d guess is in the same range) is too. I didn’t meet her, but he said I would eventually. I’ll look forward to it. ---
**Author:** ![peedin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peedin/32/14095_2.png) [@peedin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peedin)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2022, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-neighbours-weird-or-weirder/963226/83 "2022-04-25T12:19:24Z")
My curtains are always closed because my living room faces south and west. I hate the sun beating in but it doesn’t mean I’m anti social. ---
**Author:** ![jaycat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat/32/3015_2.png) [@jaycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaycat)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2022, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-neighbours-weird-or-weirder/963226/84 "2022-04-25T12:52:01Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > They keep the house solely as their private B&B - which they use maybe 1-2 nights every 2 months or so. > > People are weird. Our next-door neighbors were at home yesterday, grilling in the back yard, which they do 3-4 times in the summer. Other than that, they’re never home. Their sole reason for buying a house seems to have been to have a place for a few summer cookouts. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2022, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-neighbours-weird-or-weirder/963226/85 "2022-04-25T12:57:00Z")
> [@peedin](#): > > My curtains are always closed because my living room faces south and west. I hate the sun beating in but it doesn’t mean I’m anti social. Just an observation - tho combined w/ their actual behavior, anti social is definitely on the table. In this neighborhood - MOST households open at least SOME of their drapes OCCASIONALLY. So the house that NEVER does is unusual. Personally, I LOVE sunlight, so my curtains are almost always open. In the Chicago area there are plenty of grey days, or winter days, when I’d think many people would welcome whatever outside light they could bring in. But I really don’t care, so long as they keep the exterior of their house and their yard in good repair. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2022, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-neighbours-weird-or-weirder/963226/86 "2022-04-29T14:55:30Z")
> [@Filbert](#): > > we just don’t care about making the kind of superficial not-really-friendships that were considered standard polite practice in a Nice Neighbourhood by previous generations… Hmmm, maybe those of us with secretive neighbors will have to act like those “previous generations”… Time to put your best apron on over your 50’s sun dress and bake a batch of muffins to take over to the new family on the block! ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2022, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-neighbours-weird-or-weirder/963226/87 "2022-04-29T15:00:21Z")
> [@digs](#): > > Time to put your best apron on over your 50’s sun dress and bake a batch of muffins to take over to the new family on the block! Gotta be careful about those new neighbors though, or even about your spouse’s reaction to your feeding them baked goodies. When we moved into our previous house, the woman next door brought over brownies, which was nice. Sometime in the next few months we stopped seeing her out and about, and next thing you know, her husband was filling in the flower bed she’d started in the front yard. She just up and vanished like a fart in the wind, as Warden Norton famously said in _The Shawshank Redemption_. ---
**Author:** ![teelabrown](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/teelabrown/32/8412_2.png) [@teelabrown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teelabrown)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2022, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-neighbours-weird-or-weirder/963226/88 "2022-04-29T17:46:35Z")
We keep our front blinds closed at all times. We’d like to let some light in, but our neighbors park in front of our house and there’s a continual coming and going of them and their rogues’ gallery of illegal tenants and drug-dealing relatives. We like to pretend that they’re not there and the closed blinds help. ---
**Author:** ![kitap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b9e5f3/32.png) [@kitap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitap)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2022, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-neighbours-weird-or-weirder/963226/89 "2022-04-30T21:13:03Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > > [@peedin](#): > > > > My curtains are always closed because my living room faces south and west. I hate the sun beating in but it doesn’t mean I’m anti social. > > Just an observation - tho combined w/ their actual behavior, anti social is definitely on the table. > > In this neighborhood - MOST households open at least SOME of their drapes OCCASIONALLY. So the house that NEVER does is unusual. > > Personally, I LOVE sunlight, so my curtains are almost always open. In the Chicago area there are plenty of grey days, or winter days, when I’d think many people would welcome whatever outside light they could bring in. But I really don’t care, so long as they keep the exterior of their house and their yard in good repair. It’s a different story here in Arizona. I have a Western exposure for my patio. You better believe those blinds stay closed in the sun. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2022, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-neighbours-weird-or-weirder/963226/90 "2022-04-30T21:50:37Z")
Similarly, here at my house in Texas the windows that face the street are either West or South facing. It’s unusual when we have their blinds open (such as when we are starting some seedlings early). The window in the basement room I often occupy usually has the curtains open, but you’d just about have to be in peeping tom territory to see in. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2022, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-neighbours-weird-or-weirder/963226/91 "2022-05-01T01:06:53Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > It’s not just “polite”, it’s practical to know your neighbors. Your neighbors are a cheap security system… Neighbors bring in packages when you are on vacation, so they don’t sit out in the rain and advertise your absence. A friend said he couldn’t go to a music festival with me because he didn’t have anyone to let his dog out mid-day. I was surprised: “Don’t you have a neighbor that’d do that for you?” (I mean, he’d lived in a house near the center of a small town for ten years, and raised two kids who must’ve played with the neighbor kids… I just assumed…) “I don’t know any of my neighbors.” ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@salinqmind1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind1)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2022, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-neighbours-weird-or-weirder/963226/92 "2022-05-02T16:12:52Z")
So I guess you’re psychic? Or you don’t waste precious breath speaking to dulls, or olds? They’re just things moving around your peripheral vision, like birds or bugs? ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@salinqmind1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind1)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2022, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-neighbours-weird-or-weirder/963226/93 "2022-05-02T16:14:58Z")
Oh, come on, be modern. Put on your baggy cargo shorts and tank top, bring over some meth or crack, or at least some decent weed. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2022, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-neighbours-weird-or-weirder/963226/94 "2022-05-02T16:23:15Z")
Moderating: This post is totally inappropriate, even if it didn’t appear to misunderstand the post it replies to > [@salinqmind1](#): > > So I guess you’re psychic? Or you don’t waste precious breath speaking to dulls, or olds? They’re just things moving around your peripheral vision, like birds or bugs? No warning, but close. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-neighbours-weird-or-weirder/963226.md?page=4)