Putting the ‘neighbor’ back in the ‘hood…
My aunt is in the hospital. She wasn’t feeling well and my dad had her neighbor check on her (he was doing some other things) and he got a call from the neighbor (her name is Susan) to tell him she wasn’t in very good shape and probably needed to go ‘up the hill’. (why is it that hospitals seem to generally be on hills, anyway?) So they got my aunt there and it turns out she had to be LifeFlighted to Portland from the EO (that’s Eastern Oregon, by the way) so she’s here now.
That’s not why I’m blogging this. I’m telling you because the part of the story that stuck with me was the neighbor. I know Susan too, have known her for years. I know neighbors of lots of people in my family, they all seem know their neighbors at least by name and basics (what they do, number of kids, etc). I thought maybe it was an EO thing, but I have a cousin who lives here and she knows at least a little about her neighbors too.
So how come I barely know anyone on my block? I can tell you the name of the person next door only because she came and introduced herself. I know the man diagonally from me because one night some street racers wailed up our street and totalled his pickup. It was late and we were all outside wondering what had happened. But the people across the street from me, I have no idea who they are. I ride the bus home and sometimes the woman across the street is on the same bus and I know who she is (it’s hard to miss someone walking to your house basically and then crossing the street), but I don’t know how to approach her and say hi. They moved in last summer and I kept meaning to go introduce myself but I never did. Now I feel like it’s too late and there is nothing to be done for it, or that I shouldn’t now because they’ve lived there for so long.
How do I make it not weird? How can I extend a hello to everyone on my block and not look stupid doing it? (haven’t you been here forever? why are you talking to me now?) Do people even still care who’s in their neighborhood anymore? Does it matter less to me because I don’t have kids? Does it matter less because I don’t live in a “nice” part of town? Am I really just *that* antisocial? Isn’t it crap like this that makes people behave the way they do that makes me so mad?
Those are all valid questions but I’m really only hoping for an answer to the first one. Have you done this? Can you give me any insight?
Related posts:
Banana Lee: don’t overthink it, just do it. Really. You’ll probably be pleasantly surprised at how your neighbors respond.
Have a block party (maybe not in the winter). Just host it inside, stange people come if it’s outside.