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Why It’s Good to Love Your Neighbor
Last year, when I moved into my condo, I was new to apartment living. In San Francisco, I’d inhabited “flats.” And for my first decade in Los Angeles, I lived in a free standing home. These days in my building, I bump into people in the elevator, at the mailbox, by the trash bin. We’re neighbors and also co-owners of common space, so there’s real incentive to be cordial. We have to work together to solve problems. A few days ago, we had a small fire in the garage and had to evacuate at midnight. (No real damage.) For a single person, it’s a marriage of strange bedfellows, and in a way, it keeps me limber. How do you get along with your neighbors?
Image via Stuff and Son
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7 comments for “Why It’s Good to Love Your Neighbor”
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Love my neighbors! I’ve posted about them here before. We all really look out for one another, and I know I can count on them in an emergency. Cheers!
Winegoddesstx, Have there been specific times during which you’ve really needed your neighbors?
One of my next-door neighbors is a single woman like me. We watch out for each other’s home when on vacation, bring in mail, that sort of stuff. We don’t really socialize, but we do chat (and send gossipy emails about properties in the neighborhood ;). We both work at the same university, too–she’s staff, I’m faculty-2am we do chat about university issues sometime. I have no qualms abou asking her for favors (nor she me). On the other side is an older couple with an adult son at home. They frequently bring in my trash cans, which is a very sweet thing to do. Another neighbor has helped me shovel snow ( and I’ve helped yet another neighbor with that). So, I’d say we are truly “neighborly”!
That sounds like a lot of neighborly support. I haven’t quite developed that, but I’m aiming for it. I recently asked a guy in my building if he would help me haul the propane tank for my BBQ from the trunk of my car. He politely told me that he has a bad back.
There’s been a lot of turnover in my building lately (7 units) and I don’t know the new people as well as I knew the old people. We’re friendly in the hallways/laundry room, though. I’ve been considering inviting everyone up for a cocktail some evening—I need to get to know SOMEONE in the building better, because my usual cat sitter just moved out!
Cocktails sounds like a great idea.
Wendy – yes, I’ve needed my neighbor’s help when I was out of town especially. They all keep an eye on my house while I’m travelling. One time a storm came through and a large tree limb came down in my backyard – it was chopped up and taken care of by the time I got home from my trip. My air conditioning went out one summer (in Houston!) while travelling, and my neighbor called to to tell me – she knows I store a bunch of wine in the house that would have been ruined. She called my repair company and stayed there while the work was done. After hurricane Ike, another neighbor stored all my refrigerator & freezer contents for two weeks because they had a generator. That same neighbor hosted the entire block for community meals daily during the two weeks following Ike because that is how long we were without power and they had a large enough house & kitchen to accomodate everyone. It’s really comforting to know I can call on them for help.