# Who are the people in your neighborhood? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 24, 2006, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-people-in-your-neighborhood/365765 "2006-07-24T01:29:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2006, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-people-in-your-neighborhood/365765/21 "2006-07-24T15:57:40Z")
[QUOTE=peri] Big, old frame building on Hermitage? **HelloNinja** , you live down the block from me! [/QUOTE] Whoa! I used to live, before they shipped me out to BFE, at Winchester & Wilson, just a couple blocks away. Neat. We could have gone to the Zephyr for shakes and fried food items. Um…there are no famous people in my neighborhood. I know, you’re amazed there aren’t any celebrities living in rural Bulgaria, try to contain your amazement. ---
**Author:** ![Dragwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dragwyr/32/2855_2.png) [@Dragwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dragwyr)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2006, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-people-in-your-neighborhood/365765/22 "2006-07-24T17:03:06Z")
My old home town of Portage, MI was once home to the great Harry Blackstone, before he moved to Colon, MI. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_chao_goes_mu/32/3191_2.png) [@The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Chao_Goes_Mu)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2006, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-people-in-your-neighborhood/365765/23 "2006-07-24T17:17:59Z")
I was born in Toledo, Ohio, birthplace of **Jamie Farr** , (my mother lived next door to him and my uncle used to play with him when they were very young) Toledo is also the birthplace of **Danny Thomas** , whom my grandma knew. She used to babysit his younger siblings. T-town is also the birthplace of Gloria Steinem and Katie Holmes (well Holmes if from Sylvania which is a tiny suburb) Jimmy Hoffa was married in a house (across from the courthouse) next to my friend’s house in Bowling Green, OH. That’s all I’ve got. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2006, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-people-in-your-neighborhood/365765/24 "2006-07-24T23:25:04Z")
[QUOTE=peri] Big, old frame building on Hermitage? **HelloNinja** , you live down the block from me! [/QUOTE] Indeed! I’m on Wilson and Ravenswood… and yes, that means I’m right above Zephyr Cafe! ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-people-in-your-neighborhood/365765/25 "2006-07-25T00:25:39Z")
[QUOTE=JThunder] Oh, the postman is a person in my neighborhood. [/QUOTE] In your neighborhood? ---
**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-people-in-your-neighborhood/365765/26 "2006-07-25T00:29:52Z")
The actress Mary Kay Place grew up in my neighborhood. She lived one block west of me. We attended the same schools, but we didn’t interact much, since she was popular and I was a nerd. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-people-in-your-neighborhood/365765/27 "2006-07-25T03:55:11Z")
My daughter’s preschool was a few blocks from Ronald Reagan’s house and The Playboy Mansion. ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-people-in-your-neighborhood/365765/28 "2006-07-25T04:53:46Z")
[QUOTE=bup] > [@JThunder](#): > > Oh, the postman is a person in my neighborhood. In your neighborhood? [/QUOTE] In my neighborhood. Pay attention, **bup**. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-people-in-your-neighborhood/365765/29 "2006-07-25T05:37:13Z")
[QUOTE=Skald the Rhymer] Thomas Edison and Jefferson Davis both lived within a hundred meters of my apartment at one time or another. [/QUOTE] That reminds me – when I was a kid, we lived across the street from where Jeff Davis was imprisoned during the war. While he was in prison, his wife Varina lived _in_ our house, actually in my sister’s bedroom. Supposedly, her ghost still haunts the place, and you can see her sometimes peeking out of my sister’s old bedroom, trying to catch a glimpse of her husband through the bars of his jail cell window. ---
**Author:** ![Hedonism\_Bot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a5b964/32.png) [@Hedonism\_Bot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hedonism_Bot)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-people-in-your-neighborhood/365765/30 "2006-07-25T06:38:18Z")
Tommy Chong lived in my neighborhood when he was a teen, and actually graduated from my high school of I remember correctly. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-people-in-your-neighborhood/365765/31 "2006-07-25T10:43:56Z")
Some of the people who live(d) within walking distance of my house: Harvey Pekar Debra Winger Diana Hyland Phil Ochs Donald A. Glaser Albert Ayler Viktor Schreckengost (who, at age 100, still lives here) And not too far away, is Lakeview Cemetery, which contains the graves of: President James A. Garfield John D. Rockefeller Eliot Ness ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-people-in-your-neighborhood/365765/32 "2006-07-25T21:15:24Z")
Clarence Thomas apparently lived in my (large) Northern Virginia subdivision before he was appointed to the Supreme Court. I mentioned this fact to a friend, when the hearings were going on, and she suggested we walk over and egg his house (no, I never did that; never knew exactly _where_ he lived nor did I ever see him). Katherine Hepburn had an apartment within a few blocks of mine when I lived in Manhatten in the early 90s. No clue whether she was in residence, but there was some mention of her in a neighborhood rag of some sort. Also I shared a gym with Ed Koch, former mayor of NYC - walked past him entering as I was leaving, and I asked the fellow just ahead of me on the stairs “was that…?” “Yep.”. These days, I got nothin’. Everyone interesting has moved away, or found out where we are and decided to avoid us 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Stringer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Stringer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stringer)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-people-in-your-neighborhood/365765/33 "2006-07-25T21:35:49Z")
Jeff Tweedy of Wilco fame lives a few blocks from me. None of my friends believed me until I pulled up the housing purchase records online. ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-people-in-your-neighborhood/365765/34 "2006-07-25T21:44:27Z")
From the “My, how things have changed” department - In High School in Northern Virginia in 1979, my extremely middle class family (Federal gov’t employee Dad, stay at home Mom) lived in the adjacent subdivision to [Bob Dandridge](http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/d/dandrbo01.html) , an NBA all-star. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-people-in-your-neighborhood/365765/35 "2006-07-25T21:51:17Z")
[QUOTE=Mama Zappa] Clarence Thomas apparently lived in my (large) Northern Virginia subdivision before he was appointed to the Supreme Court. I mentioned this fact to a friend, when the hearings were going on, and she suggested we walk over and egg his house (no, I never did that; never knew exactly _where_ he lived nor did I ever see him). [/QUOTE] Why did she want to egg his house? ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-people-in-your-neighborhood/365765/36 "2006-07-25T23:13:34Z")
A drug dealer and a cop who grew up together live on my street. Their other childhood friend–a frequent customer of the drug dealer before it became too awkward for her to come into the neighborhood–is the daughter of the family we bought the house from, and the mother of a girl who I coincidentally went to a soccer game with once in 2003. Life here is interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-people-in-your-neighborhood/365765/37 "2006-07-25T23:22:34Z")
Nobody. I live in BFE. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-people-in-your-neighborhood/365765/38 "2006-07-25T23:38:40Z")
Wikipedia says that means Big Fucking Empty. Who knew? (I always used “East Bumfuck, Missouri”). ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2006, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-people-in-your-neighborhood/365765/39 "2006-07-26T03:12:37Z")
Before she married Grover Cleveland, [Frances Folsom](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Cleveland) lived on North Road in Wheatland, but well outside the village. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2006, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-people-in-your-neighborhood/365765/40 "2006-07-26T13:47:06Z")
[QUOTE=fetus] Wikipedia says that means Big Fucking Empty. Who knew? (I always used “East Bumfuck, Missouri”). [/QUOTE] I always thought of BFE as “Butt Fuck Egypt” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-people-in-your-neighborhood/365765.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-people-in-your-neighborhood/365765.md?page=3)