Elta

My family is out for the week in California.

Today is the day I usually make my bread for the week, and since no one is home to get waken up, I put some music on and got to work. It hadn't occurred to me that I made too much (seeing as how I am home alone) until I was done.


I thought about giving to some neighbors, but I don't really know any of them. So I just bagged it up and stuck my head out of the front door.

I saw a black dude about my age running outside (which is pretty common at this time of day in my area) only this time it was different. He had on a tank and some of those super short cross country/old school basketball shorts, he had a really well kept medium sized fro to go with it.

I yelled out "Hey! Come here!" he jogged over to me and I said "Do you want some bread, I just made some, but I made too much"

He asked me "What kind? I can't eat white bread." I said "You're good, it's dark rye" I handed him the bag and he gave me that really strange DAP they do over here on the northeast side of town. He said "Right on right on man, I am going to make some salami sammichs wit this"

As he jogged away he said "alright brown bear ( I am half mexican, 6 feet and 250lbs former linebacker) thanks, if you want to play some one on one hit me up *he pointed 8 or 9 houses down to a house with a basketball hoop* I am home all day thursday and friday"


That was by far the strangest encounter I've ever had with a neighbor. I wonder if he purposely acts that way as some sort of hipster ironic persona..... Maybe he was just raised by a dad who still acts really old school.

I am guessing all figure it out one of these days when I am playing basketball, I am glad I've found someone close by to play with. It's a lot easier to get motivated to play basketball then it is to go for a run.

I am looking forward to balling it up on thursday



Anyone else have any neighbor stories?

genuinegirly

What a fun experience.

Nothing that exciting. Though we recently picked up packages for our neighbors while they were away on their honeymoon. They didn't expect it, and were appreciative when they returned.

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snowy

My neighbors are obnoxious college students who built a skate ramp in their backyard, and skate all hours of every day. The noise of the skateboards on the ramp is slowly driving me nuts. We've called the police on them twice for making too much noise after 10pm. Seriously, they make me feel like an old lady, but they're just so damned obnoxious. Case in point: last September, my SO and I had to leave the house at 2am to head to the airport for a 6am flight to Chicago. Our neighbors were partying when we hit the sack around 8 and STILL partying when we left at 2, with drunk girls hanging off the balcony on the front of their house and yelling up and down the street. Suffice it to say, I did not sleep much in those few hours I had to do so.

The last time the cops came, we weren't the ones who called--one of our other neighbors must have. Here, we have a city ordinance that says that if the cops come out to a rental house more than 3 times, the police have to notify the landlord that they have a "nuisance tenant." Our houses are fairly close together, and so with my window open, I could hear the police officer telling the boys next door that they really, really needed to get to know their neighbors, because if they got one more call about noise at this house, they would have to notify the landlord. Sure enough, the next day one of the guys came over and gave us his name and phone number, and said to call him if they were being too loud. Can't say we won't try. While I don't like calling the police, they're really the only option when someone is having a drunken, loud party if you don't have your neighbors' phone number--there's no way in hell I'd ever walk through one of their parties to try and find someone who actually lived in the house.

My neighbors on the other side aren't so bad, except they fight when they get too drunk, and they're really loud when they fight, screaming and yelling. I feel like yelling back, "Hey, maybe you should drink less so you won't fight so damn much." And don't get me started about the neighbors around my lot--we have one of the bigger lots in the neighborhood, so we have about 5 immediate neighbors, and all except for 1 are loud, like bonfires, and have too many parties.

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If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Elta

What is this too many parties you speak of?





I tend to throw a lot of semi big parties 30-50ish people.

But we tend yo keep them in the house and I make sure no one parks in a way that they block neighbors cars.

I've never had the cops come and we tend to have 9 or 10 a year.

The key to keeping everyone inside and quiet is if you have a family room and a living room, to put the music on in the one where people will be dancing, and having the other room as the kickback - quiet - hookah room.

It's not like I don't allow people in my back yard, but at most there are 4 or 5 people out there chatting.

snowy

Yeah, I don't think they've mastered the art of "After 10pm, everyone needs to be inside unless they're smoking a cigarette."

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If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Xerxys

Wow, why would you guys live in such neighborhoods? Damn it snowy, nothing exciting happens here in Wisteria Lane, Nurf Cackalacky.

I had a neighbor ask for my leaf blower once ... it was, uneventful.

snowy

I live in a college town, and in a mixed neighborhood of housing for college students/regular housing. Lots of exciting things happen here.

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If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Hektore

I feel your pain snowy, we live in a block that is 50% owned by the local college. Also happens to be the primary route back to the dorms from the popular bars for that age crowd. On the rare occasion it is quiet after 10pm it's usually because those asshats are stealing everything not chained up (I'm not kidding-every piece of furniture on my front porch is chained and locked to anchor bolts on the house)

Luckily - thanks to the constant complaining - the college made new rule for off campus students. Landlords are now required (they have to sign an agreement with the school, lest the students not be given permission to live there) to notify the school of 'nuisance' tenets at which point those students are required to move back onto campus.

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FuglyStick

I can dig it.

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AZIZ! LIGHT!

Ourcrazymodern?

Should I feel blacksploited if I just gave a neighbor some intimate pieces of my mind & he didn't respect them? (Neither of us is black, but I don't understand the terminology.)

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BE JUST AND FEAR NOT

Pearl Trade

Blaxploitation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It's a film style used to target the black audience. Quentin Tarantino has used references and blaxploitation styles in some of his movies.

At my old house I had a neighbor that shot out the windows of my other neighbor with an air rifle. In the same 'hood there was a kid who liked to do wheelies on a 4-wheeler until he killed himself doing just that. Then every single on of my neighbors had dogs who stayed outside and would not shut the fuck up, so we had to pop fircrackers and spray them with water. The neighbor behind us had his outside lights on all night and they were pretty bright, so we built our fence higher, much to the dismay of the neighbor. He got all pissy and had a few words with my dad when he was out there, my dad told him to get off our property (the fence line wasn't the property line, about 3 feet in the neighbors yard was the property line) and he never said a word after that. Alot of shitty people lived in that neighborhood, even though it was more expensive to live there than the surrounding area.

We moved and the neighbors in this subdivision are much better. They keep to themselves, just the way I like it.

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Strange Famous

One of my neighbours tried to extort me for money.

He claimed that he owned the land where I parked my car. I asked him to prove that he did and he couldnt, but he said that my car might get damaged if I didnt pay him rent to park there.

The funny thing was I was driving a 20 year old Nissan and he drove a 3 year old BMW (ie his car was worth 10 times what mine was). I merely informed him that if anything happened to my car he might expect something to happen to his car or his face. Nothing much happened after that, he was always polite but distant everytime I saw him afterwards.

He also sold drugs out of his flat - but where I'm from calling the police on someone isnt really how people behave, I'd rather settle any disputes person to person. And while I dont use drugs I dont really care if other people do anyway.

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for all things are plain in the sight of Heaven. For nothing
hidden will not become manifest, and nothing covered will remain
without being uncovered."

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Charlatan

Interesting how this devolved from a friendly meeting between neighbours over a loaf of freshly baked bread and a possible game of hoops to how much people hate their neighbours.

I don't have all that many interactions with my neighbours. We are the only ang mohs (white people) in our condo block. When we meet our neighbours in the elevator there are always pleasant hellos but not much else... with one notable exception.

One night there was a knock at my door. I answered it to find a gentleman holding my wallet and asking if it was mine. Turns out I had dropped it by the mailboxes next to the elevator doors. He figured by the ID that it likely belonged to the only white guy in our block. Since that time, if I happen to be leaving for work when he is, he offers me a lift to work as it is on his way.

The only bad neighbours I have are the monkeys that break into my kitchen to steal my fruit. But there is just no reasoning with monkeys.

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RangerJoe

I'm a keep to myself type of person. On my left is an apartment house where an older couple whom I've never spoken to and a not so old couple live. The not so old couple grill out a lot and always have company. When they grill out, they are in my backyard because the apartment doesn't have one. It's not really a big deal, but would have been great if they had asked.

On my right is a couple with older kids (high school). They have yard sales every weekend. Grill out at least once a week. They don't smoke inside, so I'm constantly hearing the squeaky screen door when the wife comes out to smoke. And, it smells awful. There's not much room between our houses and my bedroom window faces their house. I keep a window fan in to help keep my room cool. Most of the time, I end up turning the fan off because I'm gagging on a horrible mix of cat (lots and lots of cat - spray and litter) and something... rotten. Or dead. I've come not to like them so much.

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