Neighborliness

[Ed Wilson]

My neighbor across the street gave me a $10 gift certificate for our nearby grocery, Why? Because I cleaned her driveway of snow a few times . I sure didn’t expect it and tried to refuse but she would have no part.

What I did was no big deal with the snow thrower and only took a couple minutes. Still I feel funny accepting money for just being neighborly and I don’t want to hurt her feelings.

I’m thinking I’ll spend the gift certificate on pastries and give her half unless someone has a better idea.

 

[Beth Gallagher]

That sounds like a nice gesture, Ed. Not knowing the woman makes it hard to say how she would react. She wanted to do something for you, so maybe just accept her gift and wave when you see her.

 

[Marie Miller]

Your neighbor meant well!
It irritates the dickens out of me when someone responds to a gift with "you shouldn't".

 

[Ken Anderson]

When I moved to Maine in 2001, an older (than me) couple lived across the street, and another couple, close to my age lived adjacent to me to the south, while the house to the north was vacant. In the winter, if I didn't get up early enough, either one of these people would have shoveled or snow-blowed my driveway and sidewalk before I got up after a storm. My tendency was to go to bed late and get up late, so I had to make a point of getting up earlier than them once in a while so that I could reciprocate. We would spend a week at a time at a couple of timeshares that we have during the winter, and wouldn't have to worry about having to shovel our way into the driveway and house when we returned.

It became normal for whoever got up first to take care of their own sidewalks, driveway, or lawn (in the summer), and then move on to the neighbor's if they weren't already working on it.

However, the man to the south of me moved to an apartment after his wife died, and that house has been vacant since, and the man across the street died, a few years after his wife died.

Someone moved into the vacant house to the north of us. Apparently, he didn't have a lawnmower when he moved in, and honestly, it didn't make sense for him to buy one because his front yard was tiny and he doesn't have a backyard, After mowing my yard, I moved on to mow his, as it had already been long when he moved in. He seemed to have taken offense over that, insisted on paying me $30 for what was, at most, a three-minute job, and I haven't exchanged a word with him since, and it's been about six years now, although his wife seems friendly enough.

Across the street, my neighbor's son moved into what had been his father's house, and he's a bit strange. He yells at people he's never met before, including my wife, who had never spoken to him before. He's been trespassed from the post office and at least a few businesses in town, so, while I have made a couple of overtures toward a conversation with him while walking past his house, I don't think we'll reach a point of neighborliness on that point.

 

[Mary Robi]

The neighbor across the street and I have keys to each other's houses.

I'll feed her cats if she's away, she collects our mail if we go on vacation.

If packages are delivered, we'll shove them in each other's doors.

It works.

 

[Cody Fousnough]

The other day when I went to get our mail, I noticed a Parcel Box (large mailbox for parcels) that had a package in it. The door was partially open and the key was still in the lock. What is suppose to happen, when USPS delivers a larger package to a resident's mailbox, it would be put into a Parcel Box, shut the door and put the key into the resident's mailbox. That didn't happen. So, I took the package out and gave it to a member of the office staff. The person in the office was very grateful that I did that.

Yes, I do have my "nice" days. LOL

 

[Madge Bumstead]

My neighbor across the street gave me a $10 gift certificate for our nearby grocery, Why? Because I cleaned her driveway of snow a few times . I sure didn’t expect it and tried to refuse but she would have no part.

What I did was no big deal with the snow thrower and only took a couple minutes. Still I feel funny accepting money for just being neighborly and I don’t want to hurt her feelings.

I’m thinking I’ll spend the gift certificate on pastries and give her half unless someone has a better idea.

I miss those old days. Such gestures and acts of appreciation used to be common, not just a surprise reward for doing something nice for someone, but the act of actually doing, as in shovelling a walk, mowing a lawn, etc.

For a good number of winters, hubby would shovel our place out, then walk down to an older neighbours place and help shovel him out. It's what good people do... good neighbours. Today, half of the people (neighbours) in and around us don't even shovel their own walks, so if you're elderly or laid-up with a medical or health woe, forget some "good neighbour" dropping by unannounced and cleaning up your place for you or bare minimum, extending an offer to do so, hence why I long for and miss the era I grew up in so much.

 

[Hedi Mitchell]

We get excited if we even see a neighbor here.... I have become a hermit actually. I am so plae form lack of sunny and being outside. Will try and fix that come spring time.

 

[Cody Fousnough]

Due to whatever today, a lot of "friendliness" is gone. That word, "friendliness", is much easier to come by in much smaller cities than where we currently live. I'm a pretty friendly guy and people that I start talking to, without them saying a word first, get quite stunned that I'm even speaking to them.
Apparently there is just so much crime done today, many people are scared to talk to any stranger.

 

[Marie Mallory]

Due to whatever today, a lot of "friendliness" is gone. That word, "friendliness", is much easier to come by in much smaller cities than where we currently live. I'm a pretty friendly guy and people that I start talking to, without them saying a word first, get quite stunned that I'm even speaking to them.
Apparently there is just so much crime done today, many people are scared to talk to any stranger.

Well cowboy, maybe they think your a gun slinger? Just kidding.
I agree in this world now, you never know.

 

[Yvonne Smith]

Due to whatever today, a lot of "friendliness" is gone. That word, "friendliness", is much easier to come by in much smaller cities than where we currently live. I'm a pretty friendly guy and people that I start talking to, without them saying a word first, get quite stunned that I'm even speaking to them.
Apparently there is just so much crime done today, many people are scared to talk to any stranger.

It seems like this has always been true, at least for as long as I can remember, @Cody Fousnough . I grew up in a small town, and the checkers all knew my mom when I went shopping with her when I was growing up. They always said hi, and greeted my mom by name most of the time.

However, when we went onto Spokane and stopped at a grocery store there, the checkers didn’t usually say help, smile, or do anything except check out the groceries.
This was back in the 1950’s, so over 70 years ago, and people were that way even back then.

In small towns, people wave even if they don’t know you, will stop to help if they see a vehicle off the road or parked on the side, and just in general are trusting of other people, even ones they don’t know.
In larger towns, where people often don’t even know their next door neighbor, this kind of friendliness just is not there.

 

[Marie Miller]

I texted a neighbor yesterday if she had a minute. The response was ‘coming over’. We had talked about pot stickers and I was making a freezer batch. She went ‘this is it?’, had a sample of steamed dumplings served with shrimp chips, peanuts, crisp wontons and dipping sauce. To go plate of sides and uncooked and the how to for egg drop soup to make it a meal. Gelatine is the secret
This is normal around here.

 

[Beth Gallagher]

Our next door neighbors have a 13 year old and due to an overtime work situation, they asked if I could "keep an eye out" for her for a couple of hours in the afternoon two days this week. I said of course, since a 13-year old with a cellphone is not like chasing a toddler. She (Taylor) decided to stay in their house and we would be here if she needed anything or got scared.

So wouldn't you know, she was sitting watching TV and their smoke alarm started going off. She was terrified and came to our door with tears streaming down her face. It was pouring rain and I was barefoot, but I ran back to her house with her to check things out. There was no apparent reason for the alarm... she had not been using the stove or microwave, I didn't smell any smoke, it was just a mystery. So the alarm system was reset and she came home with me to wait on her mother to get home.

I guess it was just a glitch or power blip or something. Sometimes modern "conveniences" are just a pain in the butt.

 

[Marie Miller]

Our next door neighbors have a 13 year old and due to an overtime work situation, they asked if I could "keep an eye out" for her for a couple of hours in the afternoon two days this week. I said of course, since a 13-year old with a cellphone is not like chasing a toddler. She (Taylor) decided to stay in their house and we would be here if she needed anything or got scared.

So wouldn't you know, she was sitting watching TV and their smoke alarm started going off. She was terrified and came to our door with tears streaming down her face. It was pouring rain and I was barefoot, but I ran back to her house with her to check things out. There was no apparent reason for the alarm... she had not been using the stove or microwave, I didn't smell any smoke, it was just a mystery. So the alarm system was reset and she came home with me to wait on her mother to get home.

I guess it was just a glitch or power blip or something. Sometimes modern "conveniences" are just a pain in the butt.

Thant was very kind of you.