I grew up in a nieghborhood like a lot of you here.
In an honest to goodness bungalow with a real white picket fence that I helped my Dad paint. We shared a driveway with our next door neighbors and had cookouts in the summertime. My Mom baked bread and went next door to borrow a cup of sugar when she was out.
We knew the people across the street and five houses down by name and all the kids played cowboys and indian and army together. On other days you could find us with our dinky cars and tonka trucks digging in someones garden or out in the woods building forts. We rarely were in the house and rarely were we not on our own at 4 or 5 years old.
Nobody locked their doors kept their cars in locked garages because there was no need to. We left our toys and bikes outside all night.
Everyone knew everyone else and if a stranger was around everyone knew right away and looked out for each other, each other's kids and each other's stuff.

It seems today that people hardly know their neighbors except in passing and everyone lives inside with their TV and video games.

Are there any "nieghborhoods" left?

What was your neighborhood like?

I'm 20 years old but my neighborhood was great when I was growing up. It still is, kids constantly riding bikes, playing ball in the street, selling lemonade, and playing in the woods. We still have block parties and BBQ's, its a great time, I was lucky. And.................its in Massachusetts.

What is this "neighborhood" you people speak of?

Yeah, I missed out...and I'm gonna do my damndest to make sure my future kids don't miss out on that.

Shoot pedophiles and neighborhoods will come back quickly.  Kids are what make neighborhoods work.  If they cannot go out a play without fear for their lives it is going to make it hard to meet the people around you.

I live in an apartment complex. My neighbors growing up did just the same, I am 22 and can still remember everyone bringing over bread and cookies on move in day.

My parents know half of their neighbors. When they moved from TN to PA they went around and met the neighbors because none of them came to visit. When my parents moved from PA to MD the last thing the neighbors said was "Wow, we never knew each other until you moved in and brought us all together".

It was sad.

I grew up on a farm but my neighbors were very nice and very loyal.  I was raisd by my grandparents and my neighbors were their age or older but it didn't stop me from visiting.  A funny thing I remember growing up that I never see anymore is May baskets.  On the first of may I would make baskets with home made cards, flowers and a treat in them and place them on my neighbor's door step, ring the bell and run and hide.  Gram would arrange it all so I wouldn't get "caught'.  I tried to arrange a few May day baskets for some of my MIL's neighbors and they all whined because they didn't want to stay at home for my daughter to hide her basket.

Patty

What I know about my immediate neighbors: One is a militant lesbian (and looks the part), one is a gay priest (supposedly maintaining celibacy) and one is an ER nurse (who on 09.12.01 told me she thinks OBL is "charismatic and kinda sweet, like Bill Clinton").

So no, I wouldn't call this a "neighborhood." More like a freak show.

The area i grew up in was a semi-friendly place to grow up. I lived on a dead end street, and knew most of my neighbors. It wasn't exactly the type of place where everyone would help you out, but many did anyway.

The place I moved into last year was a blast. The street was a big circle that had an old mill at the end, and all the houses were owned by the mill prolly 80 years ago. One of my chiefs lived on the other side of the circle. Me, my GF, my best friend, and another guy from the FD rented a very nice 3BR house there with 2 sheds, a huge yard, and a stream at the bottom edge of the property, and we made a really nice horseshoe pit on the lower part next to the stream. There was open space and woods behind the mill to ride my quad. Behind the mill was a lake and a cool dam we fished off of all the time. We had a patio with a large chiminea that became our drunken hangout every weekend. My neighbors were my landlord's parents, and gave us no guff becuase we helped them out often. I had my own separate reloading room in the basement, complete with running water. Every room in the house had ceiling fan, and phone and cable hookups. We had a big kegger at the end of last summer for my best friend's birthday, and everyone from the neighborhood came over and had a great time. It was the best time I ever had in my life, seriously.

Sadly, my landlord, also a member of the FD, decided to give us 30 days to move out last november becuase he wanted to rent the house to someone else, plain and simple. Broke my heart. I now live in a fucking dump apartment up the street. I guess a lot of people didn't like his decision to shitcan us,; he has pretty much been blacklisted. He got rid of 3 of the most active firefighters in the department that lived a minute away, and he was given the business by everybody for doing it.

FUTY!!!!

I moved here from 2,000 miles away a couple weeks ago.  The rabbi next door and his wife have given me the warmest greeting I've ever had moving anywhere.  She fixed me a hot meal on day 1, he invited me in for coffee, etc.  I have yet to meet any other neighbors, including the several that were supposedly watching the house for the last few months.  Looks like I'll have to seek them out.

When I grew up in the 70's, we had block parties and most people knew each other.  As kids, we shot fireworks at each other down the street and rode our bikes everywhere.  The friendships and acquaintances stretched beyond the block and across the entire subdivision.  Sure there were a few kooks around, but we were never far from somebody we knew and always far from danger.

So many times since, I've moved into a neighborhood and gone out of my way to make inroads with the new neighbors and so few times have I met anyone I care to remember.  I haven't put my finger on it, but the best I can figure is that people just suck these days in a way they didn't in the past.  

Growing up was exactly like that when I lived in Denmark as a little kid (but once my folks started moving around - new country every three to four years - it was hard to make friends - especially when you didn't speak the language )

However, my neighborhood right now is VERY MUCH like that.  I know about five or six families really well, and know another five reasonably well.  In this summer, there's often just driveway "parties" at someone's house - bring some beer and munchies and hang out.  When I was working on the mustang, several guys lent me tools without a second though, and helped me.  When the car looked at its worst - stripped paint and no fenders, hood, trunk, etc - several of the wives of the neighborhood demanded that I drive them around in it, so they could hoot at the other people in the subdivision.  It was a riot!  

All the kids are always playing together in the street, and several of my neighbors don't lock their doors.  When my neighbors across the street had a lot of crap in their garage, I let them park their son's car in one of my garage ports.  The ones across the street are really nice folks, and the mom knows that if they need anything, they can just go in my house and borrow it (they have a key).  Actually it was those neighbors who helped me find the body guy who is currently working on the mustang.

A few weeks ago, I ran into one of my neighbors and his son at the shooting range - and let the boy shoot my midlength AR and my SBR.  So now they may build an AR - we're going to talk about it one of these weekends.

The best example was probably when I had first moved in, and didn't know anyone, and was working in the yard, doing landscaping on Easter Sunday.  The family across the street sent their son over with a plate with an Easter dinner - ham, potatoes, beans, etc. because they saw me out there by myself.

I love my neighborhood - those places STILL do exist, apparently.  

... I live in a nice neighborhood, been here 18 years. Kinda sad that it looks as though I may be leaving them this summer - the price of progress I suppose.

... Luckily, as a kid we grew up in strongly bonded neighborhoods - BBQs, events, holidays and parties. Kids always played at each others homes.

... I don't think they're all dead

Yeah, I live in my nieghborhood for 20 years now, and I know quite a few of the neighbors, but we don't have block parties. All we do is say hello and goodbye to each other, and that's it.

I do not believe there has been a general deterioration of society, there has always been crime, there has always been child molesters, possibly even more in the past, it just wasn't talked about. My nieghborhood was pretty much a shithole when I was a kid, the one I live in now (in the middle of a city of 2 million) is one of the safest most friendly places I have ever lived or been to, and I know so many of my neighbors I can't walk down the street without constantly saying hello to people.

it's still pretty good around here, even for a bedroom community.
Neighbors dropped off treats when we moved in.
Working on your car in your driveway still attracts guys for a good BS session.
Lawn mowing stops when theres a bunch doing it at the same time
my neighbor is a hunter and his eyes popped out when he saw my AR's

A lot of those things happen in my neighborhood as well, but what I miss the ability to send my kids out to play and they may disappear to play ball at the field a half mile away with the other kids or ride thier bikes a couple of miles away to the store.  Maybe my wife and I over protective, but I don't see that kind of thing anymore.  Sure, out in the court kids ride bikes and stuff (usually with one parent doing something outside and keeping an eye on things).  I regret that my kids will never experience sandlot baseball, making dirt bike trails in the creeks, and playing kick the can until 10 pm.

Bring back the porch.  In the evenings, a family would be on the porch and that's how people met one another.  If a kid did something wrong, the neighbor would spot it and call the parent.  The neighborhood helped raise the children and kids learned responsibility and consequences for their action.  

I grew up in a quiet neighborhood in South St. Louis County, and it was as you describe.

Now, I would prefer to live where I can't even see the nearest neighbor. I'd really prefer to own enough land that my nearest neighbor couldn't hear me shooting guns from my porch. That'll never happen, but it's my dream.

Neighborhoods are DOA  

Sounds like where I grew up, and where I live now. Unfortunately the neighborhood where I grew up is gone - most houses are there, but development killed it. My current place is great though. We just had a big cookout last weekend at the neighbor's house, including shooting clays while the roast cooked, kids running around playing, dogs running around playing, music blaring, ATV riding, and ending up Saturday night with a drunken lawnmower race down the road and back (I definately didn't win). I love it here!! Only bad thing is not enough room to play with centerfire toys.

Quoted: .........  I haven't put my finger on it, but the best I can figure is that people just suck these days in a way they didn't in the past.

Nailed it!!




Im fortunate to live in a decent part of the rurals. No one too close.........no one too far.I know most everyone around here by face.........many by name.
But it took 15+ years of moving to find a place like I grew up in.


It is sad.

I live in a neighborhood now where kids play outdoors, shared cookouts occur every weekend, and a helping hand is right next door.

These places do exist, and can exist anywhere.

Half of the equation is you.  Get to know your neighbors.  Help them out.  It requires an effort to be friendly.  It is worth it.

I live in a town of 6,000 people. My family has been in this town since the late 50's, and my parents have lived here since 83. I know everyone. Just about everybody knows me. It's Mayberry.  The next door neighbors to my parents have lived in that house since 1955. They are like an extra set of adopted grandparents to me.

My grandparents had a farm with 800 acres out in the township. The 'neighborhood' out there was interesting. Everybody knew everybody, but nobody actually visited. The closest neighbor was about 1/2 mile away.

I grew up in a nieghborhood like a lot of you here. In an honest to goodness bungalow with a real white picket fence that I helped my Dad paint. We shared a driveway with our next door neighbors and had cookouts in the summertime. My Mom baked bread and went next door to borrow a cup of sugar when she was out. We knew the people across the street and five houses down by name and all the kids played cowboys and indian and army together. On other days you could find us with our dinky cars and tonka trucks digging in someones garden or out in the woods building forts. We rarely were in the house and rarely were we not on our own at 4 or 5 years old. Nobody locked their doors kept their cars in locked garages because there was no need to. We left our toys and bikes outside all night. Everyone knew everyone else and if a stranger was around everyone knew right away and looked out for each other, each other's kids and each other's stuff. It seems today that people hardly know their neighbors except in passing and everyone lives inside with their TV and video games. Are there any "nieghborhoods" left? What was your neighborhood like?

I grew up there too. My current neighborhood is less friendly. I know everyone by name and go out of my way to meet everyone and at least exchange phone numbers. But it is not reciprocated. Most of my neighbors now don't make the effort. They mind their business and never stop to talk. Strange. And the neighbor from the big city is a down right prick. Bitches about dogs barking, bitches about roosters crowing, bitches about kids riding dirt bikes, bitches about gunfire. I say 'Why do you big city assholes move to the country'. Go back to your shithole city and your selfmade crappy neighborhoods.

Quoted: It seems today that people hardly know their neighbors except in passing and everyone lives inside with their TV and video games. Are there any "nieghborhoods" left? What was your neighborhood like?

It's been said that the invention of TV and air conditioning has had the biggest effect on the decline of "neighborhoods".