How Things Have Changed.

I'm talking about not so many years ago,when we knew who our Neighbours were.
We have had seven houses over our married life and how things have changed over that period of time.
We knew our immediate neighbours and more or less, knew everyone in the area, with a few exceptions.
We had three daughters who played with all the kids in the area,we knew all the mothers,fathers,grandparents, Etc.
We all kept an eye on the kids,if they strayed from their area and we happened to see them we guided them back home.

Now we know and converse with six neighbours in the area,the rest we don't even know their names.
I feel the Sense of Community has gone,too many people seem to live in their wee bubble and do not get involved with other people. Maybe it's just our area..
I have two new neighbours who moved in about two years ago,I have tried to make conversation with them but the conversation dries up after a short time and I move off feeling a bit uncomfortable ..

How are things in your Area ? Do you still have the Sense Of Community?.

 

Ummmm there isnt really a sense of community altho we will happily sign for each others parcels etc and will help get bins in if someone is away.

I say hi to my neigbours and have the odd conversation but honestly im not that interested in talking to them or socialising with them but then we dont have much in common and there is quite a drastic age difference and they have families and im a young person living on my own.

It was really awkward when I bought my house because i was 23 so i think my neighbours were a bit apprehensive about noise levels etc but also occasionally i got talked down to quite a bit but it wasnt my first property so I did know what i was doing.

But then also i like to keep myself to myself and have my down time and alone time. Im like that with friends too and with partners. if i had my way i would see them once a week and thats it lol

 

It was exactly like that when I lived in Surrey, nobody really caring one way or the other, here in Hay on Wye it is different, there is a real sense of community here and I feel very grateful that I am part of it. I have only been here 3 years and yet practically everyone I meet everyday speaks to me, says good morning, waves to me if on the other side of the road. I love it here.

 

I do, but I'm in a little French village that is stuck in a time warp. A lot of the area round here is mind you, with no shops open on a Sunday apart from a couple of bread shops, one supermarket and the garden centre who open for a few hours in the morning. But everyone is friendly (and knows everyone else's business) and half the village is related to each other. But there are the family feuds though so you need to know which one to keep in with at any given time I know many would help me if I ever needed it though

I grew up in Scotland in a small village and life was just as you described it - we all played together, everyone's parents looked out for everyone's kids. You could never get away with anything either as everyone knew who you were.

Bringing my son up in Eastbourne was actually pretty much the same on the estate where we lived. Though that was more through the kid's network than adults. I knew quite a few of the neighbours but not on as friendly terms. Still a bit of a sense of community though.

When I was in London we barely knew anyone in our street. There was no sense of community at all. But we had no kids at home by then, just dogs and we did get to know a couple of neighbours while we were all out with the dogs in the local park

I feel like I've almost gone full circle and the village I'm in now is like my Scottish village in the 60s/70s

 

We see our neighbours on both sides fairly regularly and go in for a cuppa some afternoons and them in to us. Never had that before.

 

I grew up in a cathedral/garrison city. I knew my neighbours, my neighbours knew me. I was looked out for.
I moved to the East End of London. I formed the opinion that, unless you grew up there or had a job (I was a young mother at the time) you were alienated because people kept to themselves (very unlike the "friendly East End" portrayal!)
I returned "home" - time had moved on; the student population had grown, people had moved on and I could traverse the High Street and barely see anyone I knew! In fact, at one stage (I'd dyed my hair blonde and my X was naturally blond and we were walking through the High Street on a sunny Sunday afternoon) some smart alec shouted out: "Look! Even the *rude word* Germans are invading the city!"
Now, I live in a community where my first attendance at a local meeting was greeted with: "We're a close community here and look out for one another!"
Not too certain (yet!) if that was a welcome ... or a threat
I'm ready to embrace it, or defend it - depending on what they meant

 

I am now in the far East (London), having previously lived in Wimbledon, Lancaster Gate and Battersea. I find the locals so uninteresting here, I must say... The good thing is that, these days, the police coverage is excellent I would prefer a location more professionals, with nicer shops and less trashy. And I am not referring to multicultural which I have seen before. But multicultural loaded or pennyless makes all the difference.

 

Here there is no community, but if people want something then they are all over you, take,take take, take and take no giving and then there is the stab in the back, every one to them selfs here

 

Time to move then Jiff, fewer neighbours on Flatholm

 

Maybe time you came back from Mars then?

 

It's a nice quite place, it's just the people
One lady down the road was branded a gold digger by our nasty neighbour, when one of her childen got married the nasty neighbour gave them a wedding presant the day before the wedding, he got out the tractor and muck spreader and took muck down to the next farm(never happern before and never happern again) the road was full of cow poo (liquid) 4 inches deep, and the wedding had to be moved

 

This thread reminded me of this, always makes me smile ...

 

Maybe that's the way it is on Mars!!!!