The Gratitude of Neighbors (personal rant)

[Shooshie]

Changed my mind. This is not my personal forum. I should create a Facebook page or something.

Shoosh

[James Steele]

This forum is for anything OT so long as it's not the two no-no's. But if you make a Facebook, you'd better "friend" me!

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Shoosh isn't on FB?

Oh, this is bogus man!

[Shooshie]

Actually, I've had a Facebook page for a long time. I just haven't really used it much, and every time I go there, they've changed everything to the point that I no longer recognize it, so rather than sit down and figure it out — and figure out what NOT to do — I just leave it sit.

Today I spent an hour working on it. My Facebook page is Shooshie R. Nothing to speak of, but I'm going to start posting stuff on it.

As for the post here, I did a long rant about my neighbors, who moved here two years ago into a new MacMansion, to whom we've been nothing but kind and neighborly, but who have been indescribably rude and even cruel to us, to the point of trying to turn other neighbors against us. Fortunately, our friendships with at least most of our old neighbors are secure, but a few of the new ones have sided with the ones next door. The thing is, they've created it all out of thin air. I can't imagine why people would do that other than to try to make us leave so that our smaller house won't bring down their property values. (we pay about ⅙ the property taxes as they, and as soon as we leave our house will be bulldozed to make way for yet another big Crackerbox House) It's just one of those things that makes no sense. Anyway, I realized nobody here wants to know all the details about that, so I erased the post. I mean, I had gone kind of overboard and told a LOT of details.

Shoosh

[cuttime]

Hey Shoosh. Been there, done that. I've lived in the same neighborhood for 30 years. When we first moved here we were surrounded by ancient widows who were only eager to adopt us as family, and couldn't cook enough food for us. Slowly, they all died off. I can't tell you how many times my wife and I spent sleepless nights in emergency rooms because immediate family could not be reached. Eventually younger and more affluent people moved in, and along with their income, property values skyrocketed, which I thought was a good thing. The younger the neighbor, the more self centered, selfish, entitled and spiteful. After a couple of years of this "gentrification", we became surrounded by some of the meanest, most vindictive @$$holes I've ever encountered in my life. So much so that my wife fears for her life.

Does your neighborhood use the abysmal Nextdoor.com social media group? That became the final nail in the coffin. I've never been a huge fan of social media, but damn, this one is the most destructive I've ever seen. Look at some of the comments here:
https://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/www.nextdoor.com

[MIDI Life Crisis]

People get so territorial - especially when they own a house. The whole neighborhood becomes "theirs" right down to where on a public street they decide it's ok to park. Small f#%^ing minds.

[bayswater]

Even if the neighbours are not unfriendly, the change of a street to McMansions can be a pain. When we moved to our place it was a comfortable quiet old area, not outrageously expensive. Then the founder of a well known yoga wear company with citrus fruit in the name moved in a few doors away and spent three years building, with others following on the same street. The whole area has become a perpetual construction site, with the city contributing to the chaos with a long list of "neighbourhood improvement" projects.

But it has had its lighter side. A coupe of years ago, the new neighbour, maybe recognizing the disruption, posted an application to the city, dated April 1, to build a heliport on the waterfront behind his house.

[wylie1]

I have to count my blessings.
After having enough of the city life I decided to move out to a little tourist town in the country I was in culture shock ,people just start talking to you out of the blue wave at you and say good morning it really seamed strange"who are these people"
The first day I had a drum kit,bass amp and guitar amp setup and rocked the house till 3am I though I'd better go and apologize to the old lady next door and she said WHAT! your going to have to speak louder I can't hear you.
That day a friend of mind decided to go on a country ride with 15 Harley riders and show up in my driveway,after about 2 hours of no good shenanigans going on I look across the street and there's an old lady peeking out the window.
Later that day I went over to her house to let her know that a bike gang hadn't moved in and this was not a regular occurrence.
She said you boys looked like you were having so much fun I wish I was young again and she gave me some home made cookies
It turned out I moved to the party street and the hole town is amazing.
I know where your coming from Shooshie its the reason I moved.

[terrybritton]

I have to count my blessings.

Love it!

I grew up in Fairfield County, CT, which became what the NY Times called "the land of litigation" with the highest concentration of personal lawsuits, mostly neighbor against neighbor, of anyplace in the entire world.

It was a nice NYC suburb when I was a kid - a great place to get out of the city and raise your kids - but property values went crazy and houses were at minimum 650 thousand before the 2008 crash. But the yuppification had already been 10 years in the making, and people moving into those expensive houses were sometimes (often?) not very nice people - real go-getters and entitled sorts. I would venture so far as to say sociopaths, really.

I love living in the South now. It took me five years to get used to the ultra quiet pace here where I've ended up recently (I've been 20 years in NC total), but folks are pretty nice to each other all over town and in the surrounding areas. Nice neighbors, too. North Carolina has a lot of that going for it.

So, I loved your story, wylie1.

Terry

[Shooshie]

I've been out in North Carolina twice in the past 13 months. Virginia, too. I come out there to watch steam locomotives. The countryside is beautiful, the people are very nice, and the quality of life just seems high on the average. I always take back roads, and I'm especially impressed with the farms. Tobacco, vegetables, corn... I'm not even sure what some of the crops are; some of that stuff we don't grow much out here. Tobacco for instance. I'd never seen tobacco as far as the eye can see until western NC. I love the rivers. My goodness, they're full of water! Rivers here in Texas have two modes: trickle and flood, where about 350 days out of the year you see what NC would call a creek, then approximately 3 times a year, for maybe 5 days each time, they flood and fill the banks, looking more like rivers.

The only thing I don't like about North Carolina is the traffic. The speed limits are arbitrary. You'll be going 65, then 55, then 45, then 65, then 40, then 55, all in the space of 10 miles. No apparent reason for it, though I'm sure there a local could probably explain it. Those little roads start filling up with cars during rush hour, and it's hard to get anywhere. Even the freeways are way more crowded than the bucolic surroundings would suggest possible. Of course, we have incredibly dense rush hours in Dallas, but once you get moving in Texas, that speed limit tends to be pegged at 75, and Texas Highway Patrol won't stop you for going 85 if the traffic is behaving and moving together. (I'm not advising you try it. One develops a sense for when it's ok.)

North Carolina is intensely aware of its history, and you see well-preserved buildings, houses, railroad stations (you've got to see the one at Hamlet, NC), and local museums. Curiosity shops abound. And as you move toward the mountains around Asheville and west/northwest, the whole flavor of NC changes. Asheville is an amazing city. I wish I were 20 years younger when I am there. I've never seen such a party town, but in a civilized way. Then there are the mountains, themselves. This isn't Colorado or British Columbia or anywhere in between; this is Appalachia. These are mountains you can tame, and they're still magnificent. Rivers run through them. Trees grow all the way up and over them. The tallest are probably less than 5000 feet, but they are beautiful and grand.

I wouldn't mind ending up there, myself. Probably won't, since I have a ranch out this way, and several houses that need maintaining, but if the notion ever strike me to sell out and move, NC will be on the list of potential destinations.

Shooshie