Neighbors
Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2022 3:06 am
So I was driving home from an appointment and the reward to myself that followed today--Hobby Lobby. I always reward myself after something that I think could be potentially stressful for me. Turned out it wasn't at all stressful but I still rewarded myself with a few little purchases.
As I was driving through town I saw the townhouse apartments that I have always thought were so pretty, they have white railed porches and the ones on the corners have a private porch. That's the kind I would pick to live in. I notice that the townhouse that were adjacent shared the porch and I thought how awkward that might feel to residents. There is never anyone sitting there. Down the road further there are new apartments that I think might be income based. There's a lot of those around here now. There was a man and woman on their porch talking to someone standing in the yard and the woman put me in mind of Mama June. I had a moment with myself about how I was judging her because she seemed so plain. I lived a plain life when I was younger and when I say plain I mean really low income.
I immediately rewinded to the pretty shared porches and wondered why I thought that would be awkward. Putting aside the fact that I'm a introvert on steroids, it seems to me that folks don't mingle with their neighbors these days and Mama June and her man were living a friendly life in their low income houses and...so did I when I lived a plain life.
Where I grew up it was a street in a beach town. On one side was houses and the other side of the street was all boats. There's no one in that town who knows me any more and no one that I know any more either. People have moved and passed away. So weird, right? All my connections are gone but the memories live inside me. Sometimes when I go back there I go down on the beach, sit there, remember, smile and cry. My heart is still there.
So all the way to the right of the street and that's where the beach is that I played on year round. To the left the second house from the left was mine. Only it's not there now. When I grew up there it was all beach cottages but after hurricane Sandy, nearly all the houses were raised up on concrete and mine was eventually razed and rebuilt into something I couldn't afford now if I wanted to.
So on that street is where I lived and played. I knew every neighbor's last name and some first names. I spent time IN some of those houses playing with the one child who lived on that block (we're still friends) and visiting between her house and her relatives down the corner there towards the beach and also our next door neighbor's house which was two grandparents who had me over to play Chinese checkers and suck up the juice from oranges that they brought back from Florida with those plastic things you stick in the oranges and makes itself a straw. One of my friends relatives (they had a little Turkish and Greek thing going on down that end of the block) wove rugs in his garage and sold them to stores. Small rugs and huge rugs. Across the street from them was The Blind Man's house (her uncle and his wife, I knew his last name but we always called him The Blind Man in our family. He would sit on his porch and his eyes were completely white but I don't know why ) and so on and so forth. I knew them all, was in their yards, in their homes, and ate their Turkish and Greek food.
And I knew people on other blocks around there. I used to go to kid's houses and my aunt would take me with her to a friend's house to sit there while she smoked cigs and played rummy, and I eventually learned how to play the card games. My friends and I rode bikes all over that town. So we knew people on other blocks as well. Their names, their families, had been in their houses for refreshments or played in their yards.
One winter, I remember my father took our toboggan loaded up with water and delivered it to everyone whose pipes had frozen. During a major hurricane the neighbor behind us where another of my friends lived (I played there in the yard and in their house) and her father who was on the first aid squad came to rescue the The Blind Man who had had a heart attack during the storm. I watched him walk down the street in flood water up to his chest guiding a small row boat down there to The Blind Man's house.
Today we know our neighbors names and see them, wave to them, but we do not really mingle together. When our kids were younger they did play with one of their kids but not a lot and they knew one of the neighbors behind us because she taught both of them. My kids grew up not really knowing many of their neighbors. I think people moved here for the same reasons. They wanted to get away from people and do their own thing. And so, we don't really get together with each other. Unless there is trouble and someone needs help, we all keep to ourselves. We watch each other's houses when we go away or shovel/pull someone out of a ditch in winter, but that's really the extent of it.
I have not been in all of the houses on this block. I do not know everyone's name.
When I pass through neighborhoods like I did today, I don't see anyone in their yards chatting or sitting in lawn chairs while children play or even sharing a cup of coffee outdoors. It seems to me that we have become an isolated society. It seems like we don't really know each other.
Why is that? I have a few theories such as our mobile society and I think the isolation I suspect is entirely detrimental to our society.
Anyway, this is what I really want to know. What did you know of your neighbors and if you feel like it, could you contrast that with how you live in your area today? Is it much the same as my own accounts or different?
Thanks for getting this far in the post if you did and for sharing if you feel like it. Share whatever you'd like. Take the discussion in whatever direction suits you.
Jersey
ETA: If this post reads oddly (more oddly than ususal) it's because it contained an image, I removed it and didn't go through the post to compensate for that deletion.
As I was driving through town I saw the townhouse apartments that I have always thought were so pretty, they have white railed porches and the ones on the corners have a private porch. That's the kind I would pick to live in. I notice that the townhouse that were adjacent shared the porch and I thought how awkward that might feel to residents. There is never anyone sitting there. Down the road further there are new apartments that I think might be income based. There's a lot of those around here now. There was a man and woman on their porch talking to someone standing in the yard and the woman put me in mind of Mama June. I had a moment with myself about how I was judging her because she seemed so plain. I lived a plain life when I was younger and when I say plain I mean really low income.
I immediately rewinded to the pretty shared porches and wondered why I thought that would be awkward. Putting aside the fact that I'm a introvert on steroids, it seems to me that folks don't mingle with their neighbors these days and Mama June and her man were living a friendly life in their low income houses and...so did I when I lived a plain life.
Where I grew up it was a street in a beach town. On one side was houses and the other side of the street was all boats. There's no one in that town who knows me any more and no one that I know any more either. People have moved and passed away. So weird, right? All my connections are gone but the memories live inside me. Sometimes when I go back there I go down on the beach, sit there, remember, smile and cry. My heart is still there.
So all the way to the right of the street and that's where the beach is that I played on year round. To the left the second house from the left was mine. Only it's not there now. When I grew up there it was all beach cottages but after hurricane Sandy, nearly all the houses were raised up on concrete and mine was eventually razed and rebuilt into something I couldn't afford now if I wanted to.
So on that street is where I lived and played. I knew every neighbor's last name and some first names. I spent time IN some of those houses playing with the one child who lived on that block (we're still friends) and visiting between her house and her relatives down the corner there towards the beach and also our next door neighbor's house which was two grandparents who had me over to play Chinese checkers and suck up the juice from oranges that they brought back from Florida with those plastic things you stick in the oranges and makes itself a straw. One of my friends relatives (they had a little Turkish and Greek thing going on down that end of the block) wove rugs in his garage and sold them to stores. Small rugs and huge rugs. Across the street from them was The Blind Man's house (her uncle and his wife, I knew his last name but we always called him The Blind Man in our family. He would sit on his porch and his eyes were completely white but I don't know why ) and so on and so forth. I knew them all, was in their yards, in their homes, and ate their Turkish and Greek food.
And I knew people on other blocks around there. I used to go to kid's houses and my aunt would take me with her to a friend's house to sit there while she smoked cigs and played rummy, and I eventually learned how to play the card games. My friends and I rode bikes all over that town. So we knew people on other blocks as well. Their names, their families, had been in their houses for refreshments or played in their yards.
One winter, I remember my father took our toboggan loaded up with water and delivered it to everyone whose pipes had frozen. During a major hurricane the neighbor behind us where another of my friends lived (I played there in the yard and in their house) and her father who was on the first aid squad came to rescue the The Blind Man who had had a heart attack during the storm. I watched him walk down the street in flood water up to his chest guiding a small row boat down there to The Blind Man's house.
Today we know our neighbors names and see them, wave to them, but we do not really mingle together. When our kids were younger they did play with one of their kids but not a lot and they knew one of the neighbors behind us because she taught both of them. My kids grew up not really knowing many of their neighbors. I think people moved here for the same reasons. They wanted to get away from people and do their own thing. And so, we don't really get together with each other. Unless there is trouble and someone needs help, we all keep to ourselves. We watch each other's houses when we go away or shovel/pull someone out of a ditch in winter, but that's really the extent of it.
I have not been in all of the houses on this block. I do not know everyone's name.
When I pass through neighborhoods like I did today, I don't see anyone in their yards chatting or sitting in lawn chairs while children play or even sharing a cup of coffee outdoors. It seems to me that we have become an isolated society. It seems like we don't really know each other.
Why is that? I have a few theories such as our mobile society and I think the isolation I suspect is entirely detrimental to our society.
Anyway, this is what I really want to know. What did you know of your neighbors and if you feel like it, could you contrast that with how you live in your area today? Is it much the same as my own accounts or different?
Thanks for getting this far in the post if you did and for sharing if you feel like it. Share whatever you'd like. Take the discussion in whatever direction suits you.
Jersey
ETA: If this post reads oddly (more oddly than ususal) it's because it contained an image, I removed it and didn't go through the post to compensate for that deletion.