Do You Know Your Neighbors?

This is sad, and OH!, So close to home... Peg at Blessed Beyond Belief writes: Do you know yours? We have lived in our current house for almost nine years. That whole time we have had the same neighbors to our left. An older couple with grown children. I don't ever remember a formal introduction, just lot's of waves and hellos. For eight years we have just waved and said hello. The majority of the time we would see the man going to and from work, mowing his yard, or washing his Corvette. We very rarely saw the woman come out of the house and when she did it was never alone, always with him. Read the whole thing. I have lived in my present house for thirty years. Neighbors on the left are no problem, as it is my sister-in-laws (wife's sister) house. Across the street from her is my nephew. However, directly across the street from me lives a woman and her... hmmm... used to be her two sons, then one son, now I think it's grand kids. In other words, I have watched her children grow and leave the nest, and I couldn't for the life of me tell you her name! Of course by the same token she has watched mine grow, leave home, and return. But we're talking about me, not her. This might be because we have nothing except dwelling locations in common. Our kids went to different schools, and living in a semi-rural area there were not any local community gathering areas that we might have in common. Or it might be because the family had (still does!) a habit of honking their car horns each and every time they left the driveway, which annoyed me (still does!) mightily, and may have left me with little desire to gain their acquaintance. Or it might be the fact that she had a pair of little yapping dogs that she parked in the front yard every day that precluded any friendship. I don't know the answer, but the fact remains that we have lived in close proximity for years with no attempts at socializing. Peg's story brought this home to me, and I don't feel too good about the situation at the moment.