Who lives next door?
It’s interesting how your new neighbors treat you when you move into a new home and how the land around you develops from when you move in. At least it was for me.
I purchased my first house in 1985. Up until then, I had only lived in apartments. Across the street from this new house was a wooded area that had never been developed as long as I had lived there. I’m pretty sure it still isn’t.
The neighbors immediately on the west side of my house quickly introduced themselves to me. We quickly became friends, of a sort, throughout my 8-year stay in that location. The owner’s wife was a teacher, so we had things in common. I got along with her husband and her two young kids. I’m still Facebook friends with them, though we rarely interact.
On the east side of my house was a family with several kids. I’m not sure who the parent of these kids was. A wooden fence blocked the house bordered our house. I can only describe their backyard as a junkyard. We never interacted with that family at all.
In 1996, being married and with a 3-year-old child, we moved to our present house in Shoreham. My neighbor to our south was an older man and his wife who didn’t interact with us at all. We never saw his wife in the few years they remained there. That’s a mystery that was never explained.
On the north side of the house was undeveloped woods between us and the next house. It was a good place to dump raked leaves in the fall.
Within a few years, we had new neighbors on the south side, which we became very close to quickly. We helped each other a lot.
A house was built on our north side, and we had a new neighbor whom we never interacted with at all unless there was an issue with sand flowing down from his property into ours when it rained heavily.
Across the street, we also interacted with neighbors periodically but were never very close to either of them, though we were friendly with them.
Time has passed on. We have new neighbors on our south side now. It’s a family of 4. We interact with them well and are helpful to each other. Their kids are young and fun to be around,
There have been two other owners on our north side since the house was built; however, we have never become friends with either of them or their families. However, I did interact with the kids that live there now when I substitute taught in our district pre-Covid.
I’m unsure of what magical impediment prevented us from getting to know and friend people who live(d) to the left side of our houses (east and north).
One of the residents across the street from us moved, and the new people who have moved in have become good friends. We interact and help each other whenever needed.
Neighbors are a tricky thing. It’s easier to introduce yourself to new people when they move in. Time will tell how friendships and relationships will work out. You try your best to be part of a community, but you can’t pick who will be the ones that live next door and what kind of people they’ll be. You just have to be who you are and hope for the best.
So far, I’ve been pretty lucky.
