Remembering your neighbours

[Trickyvee]

I think it's a shame that people don't know their neighbours as much as they used to. I grew up in a street that was mostly inhabited by elderly couples and widowers so I was a bit of a novely for them (and probably a bit of a nuisance too) but they always went out of their way to talk to me and was often invited in for a sweet or a biscuit .

I have such vivid memories of my childhood neighbours...the old guy next door with a trilby hat and half a finger, the woman across the road with the fantastic house done out like a Spanish villa - come - 1960's ideal home exhibition, the man with the diabetes who always forgot to take his injections and would come staggering along the street looking drunk and the blind man - except I was terrified of him because of his stick, flat cap and huge blacked out glasses!

We had flasher-gate too. Several shocked women said that a bloke in our street was exposing himself at the window . All I was told was that I must not go and look in that man's window, but I wasn't told why. Of course it was the first thing I did, but thankfully I never saw anything!

[darren]

Re: Remembering your neighbours

its a real shame people do not kow there neighbours as much as we did when we where kids.

going back to late seventies to mid eighties all the neighbours in our street where friends not just people you knew to see.


i can remermber lots of the parents getting together regular for chats,drinking cha and talking about womens things.hehe
when i was a kid neighbours looked out for each other.

sadly all the neighbours we had as kids are no longer with us.

although my neighbour now is a good sport she does my washing for near enough free.

and around a year ago the neighbour locked herself out so i let her stay in my house overnight.

she asked other neigbours for help but they did not care.

one neighbour i remember well always brought us round cakes and buns almost efvery week for free.

[shilton dipper]

Re: Remembering your neighbours

unfortunately times have changed and people don't seem as pleasant as they were when we were kids ...........there's a lot of animosity out there

[Sly]

Re: Remembering your neighbours

I remember all my neighbours. Some where better than others.

[Heather74]

Re: Remembering your neighbours

We had to call our neighbours Aunty and Uncle then their Christian names, Mum called them our courtesy Aunties and Uncles.
I suppose first names were a bit to familiar and Mr and Mrs to formal.
We were so close they felt like real relatives anyway. In fact my Auntie Nellie and Uncle Bert were my god parents.
The back door was always open and they'd walk right in.
I'd die if my neighbour walked in unannounced today

[Trickyvee]

Re: Remembering your neighbours

one neighbour i remember well always brought us round cakes and buns almost efvery week for free.

One old lady always brought us bread she'd baked and dad always sent me out to the neighbours with bags of tomatoes he'd grown. There really was more community spirit back then. People looked out for each other.

I called some neighbours by their first names and others Mr and Mrs. This had no bearing on how well we knew them. It all depended on which names we found out first. Special neighbours and friends were aunties and uncles.

[Sly]

Re: Remembering your neighbours

When I was young if we had washing out and it rained and we happened to be out of the house somewhere, the neighbours would bring them in and iron them. Of course, there's no way that would happen today.

[battyrat]

Re: Remembering your neighbours

We also used to call our neighbours auntie or uncle as a kid followed by their names.Beginning to think this might of been a standard thing to do.There was certainly more of a community spirit years ago.We still have two of our old neighbours left from when I was a kid,but most have moved on or passed on.We lived opposite the old people flats which are now occupied by young familys so it's not unusual to get all night partys.Something we never used to get.As I said in another post on another thread peoples attitudes towards each other have changed,not for the better.The close nit community spirit seems to have long gone.

[darren]

Re: Remembering your neighbours

im to be your new neighbour and ill just walk in H.
To be honest people seem to keep to themselves more.

neighbiours dont seem to be friends as they where wheen i was a kid.
maybe its societys fault people to busy.

most of my neighbous where in there forties when i was a kid.
me and my brother just talked away with them we never really used there names.

mum and dad called them by there first names.

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We had to call our neighbours Aunty and Uncle then their Christian names, Mum called them our courtesy Aunties and Uncles.
I suppose first names were a bit to familiar and Mr and Mrs to formal.
We were so close they felt like real relatives anyway. In fact my Auntie Nellie and Uncle Bert were my god parents.
The back door was always open and they'd walk right in.
I'd die if my neighbour walked in unannounced today

[victorbrunswick]

Re: Remembering your neighbours

One of my neighbors when I was growing up was an old German guy named Ernst. He worked for Mattel and used to give me stuff and he also used to tell stories about fighting in Russia with the German army during World War II.

[Sly]

Re: Remembering your neighbours

I bet that was fascinating. One of my friends neighbours was an old German guy that was captured in WWII and set to work on the land here in the UK. His garden was amazing, but sadly he died in the early 90's and the new residents paved over it all. His wife used to do a lot of baking and give the left overs to the kids that used to play in the street. Her gingerbread was amazing, it was really doughy and soft.

[darren]

Re: Remembering your neighbours

he sounds like an amazing fella mate and a nice chap.
what age was this neighbour mate.
the stories he told must have been really interesting and im sure you asked him many questions.

One of my neighbors when I was growing up was an old German guy named Ernst. He worked for Mattel and used to give me stuff and he also used to tell stories about fighting in Russia with the German army during World War II.

[victorbrunswick]

Re: Remembering your neighbours

Ernst was quite an interesting person. He was in his sixties and worked as a tool and die maker for Mattel so he was quite handy and he was an avid fisherman. One funny story he told me about Russia was when he and his mates were fishing on a river bank. A Russian patrol came along and they traded the fish for vodka from the Ivans as the Russians were known. Another time when Chernobyl was in the news he mentioned being there during the war.

[carpetdragon]

Re: Remembering your neighbours

wow!! that is cool.... wish id had a interesting ww2 vet in our street. my neighbour used to build go-carts all the time and use me aged about 7 as a test pilot, we lived on a hill and how i was never killed my mother says she'll never know.

[philipdalton]

Re: Remembering your neighbours

My neighbours had a four-year-old daughter who was a real crybaby.