Community Chat

[cindyNC]

@Coastalcarolina  Northern NY foothills of the Adirondacks

[ScrapHappy]

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@MaverDaver wrote:

Growing up in my neighborhood where "everybody knows your name" as in Cheers was a great experience. There were 20 houses on my block and believe me I was in all of them. One of the neighbors (the cookie man) did exactly that. While we were eating the goodies he'd tell us about the good ole days. 

All the nighbors came out after dinner and visited each other, sitting on porches or in driveways until the sun went down. Everyone helped each other.

Today -- I still live on the same block and if I passed my next door neighbor, whose been living there since 2016, I wouldn't recognize them.

Enuf said! 

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I grew up on a great street/neighborhood too.  We didn't have porches but we had great friends and neighbors.  It was a real community.  People watched out for one another.  If outside just getting your mail, pulling into your driveway, unloading groceries.....can turn into a meet and greet and last into dinner had to be started.  I can remember during bad storms and power going out.  We'd all meet on the street, make sure everyone was okay and see if they needed anything.  

[Burnsite]

I have very pleasant memories of my great-aunt's front porch in Nova Scotia, on which for several generations all family pictures were shot.  These pics also included any pets willing to hang out and pose. There is one I specially cherish--because I'm in it, around age 3, and I do remember the sweetness of those folks, who were mostly miners--a tough life.

My own neighborhood is full of kind of nosy people, with many dog-walkers from other neighborhoods who do not scoop. It's not that awful, pretty typical for where I live, but I kind of avoid them.  Due to mosquitoes, I don't lounge outside except on the screened back porch.

[bikerbabe]

Back patio, yes.

Front porch: looks nice but I guarantee it would be for looks (plants) and never used, unless I lived in the country with no one around. Sitting around watching your neighbors is just weird. 🤣

[sunshine 919]

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@MaverDaver wrote:

Growing up in my neighborhood where "everybody knows your name" as in Cheers was a great experience. There were 20 houses on my block and believe me I was in all of them. One of the neighbors (the cookie man) did exactly that. While we were eating the goodies he'd tell us about the good ole days. 

All the nighbors came out after dinner and visited each other, sitting on porches or in driveways until the sun went down. Everyone helped each other.

Today -- I still live on the same block and if I passed my next door neighbor, whose been living there since 2016, I wouldn't recognize them.

Enuf said! 

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Yes my neighborhood was like this too.  Everyone knew everyone.  Kids could play visit different neighbors.  I loved the older people in my neighborhoog.  I always visited them, knew everyones names.  Sometimes I would help them around the house like dusting, everyone jad nic naks lol.  Anyway I do miss siting on a front porch and talking to people as they go by.

[stevieb]

Front porch, side porch, driveway, screened porch... I think the notion is that the sense of neighborhood and of neighbors socializing informally, which for many of us growing up was the norm, seems to have all but disappeared, and yes, I think it made for a nicer climate, overall, when it was the rule rather than the exception...

[Judaline]

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@bikerbabe wrote:
Back patio, yes.

Front porch: looks nice but I guarantee it would be for looks (plants) and never used, unless I lived in the country with no one around. Sitting around watching your neighbors is just weird. 🤣

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I think the idea was to get some air. The summer days and evenings can be so hot and humid-they didn't have a/c yet so they had porches and after dinner people would go out on the porch and fan themselves, lol. In the afternoon they drank lemonade-it's said to be cooling. That's where and why porches were created! Now people want them for the nostalgia but you know what? They don't go out onto the porches that much-they go into their air conditioned houses.