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I know the names of the neighbors on the street where I babysit most often, but I do not know the names of my own neighbors. We introduced ourselves when they moved in, but we've never really been social with them. This is a college town; people move in and out a lot. It's a total 180 compared to our old neighbors--we live on a private driveway with four identical white townhouses, and at one time, every house was occupied by people we considered friends. We had some really awesome parties, and it was just great to know that when you were feeling social, you could pop next door and have a beer and hang out. If you showed up with a 12-pack while MXC was on, there were always plenty of people to help you drink it.
I'm not sure what our next house will be like. We'll be living with our roommate and my SO's brother in our next house. I barely knew our roommate when we moved into this place--he had been a friend of my SO for a long time, but even my SO didn't know him well. Now we're all really good friends. My SO's brother will be an interesting addition to the mix--despite being siblings, my SO and his brother are good friends as well as coworkers. Outside of the house, we're on the edge of a historic neighborhood with little turnover, but our street has a few rentals interspersed here and there. We'll see how it goes. In this town, people usually do get to know their neighbors, especially if they stick around a while. I just never bothered to get to know the new ones here because 1) they didn't interest me at all, and 2) we're moving in a bit anyways.
Growing up, I knew ALL of my neighbors until we moved to the suburbs of Portland, but even then I knew some of them. Even where my folks live now I know the neighbors. One of them puts on a tremendous fireworks show every Fourth of July, and my parents go every year. It took them a couple years to get to know the people. I think that's one of the issues--it takes time to get to know people, and some people around here don't stay very long.
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If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau
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