Do I Know my Neighbours?

I found this article thanks to of Gray Cee at The Parenting Diaries and I got inspired to write this post. Do I know my neighbours? Could I call on my neighbours if I needed help with something?

I can still list quite a few of the people who live in the same street as where I lived when I lived with my parents. Working along the street, Michael and Cat lived at 2, Clare and Philip at 3, Ollie and Jordan at 4, Mr and Mrs Redman at 5 and Amy and Warren at 11. Now it’s changed and people have grown up and got married, or gone away to university or in the case of Mr and Mrs Redman, Mr Redman died and Mrs Redman lived on her own for a little while. Twice in my last year of uni (when I still lived with Mum), her carer came and rang Mum’s doorbell as Mrs Redman wasn’t answering her door. The first time she was out at her Day Centre’s Christmas lunch thing and the paramedic’s had called the police to break in – the carer had arrived and there was no answer. As the carer, though someone was in she called the Paramedics. I then arrive back from uni and a policeman comes and knocks on the door. He asked if we had any keys or form of access and I said yes as Mum had told me the code for her emergency key box, I was too late and the paramedic or the policeman had broken a window to get in! The second time she was genuinely hurt, she’d fallen over and ended up on the floor leaning up against her walker. It was a walking frame but was on wheels and also had a tray so she could carry items around the house. Thankfully she wasn’t hurt, but if she hadn’t had had contact with anyone in the street and she had have been hurt, would she have been ok? How long would she have sat there by herself until someone helped her?

When Chris and I got married, we also moved in together. Our first place was a small “flat” within the house that was home to the church office. We knew our next door neighbours but didn’t really know anyone else in the street. There was a friendly family at No 99, they sent everyone in that bit of the street a quick note to let us know that it was their daughter’s birthday and that if there was a bit of noise they were sorry. Then next door there was Judith and Dave – they are super lovely!!! Whenever we had packages arrive and we weren’t in but they were they would sign for them for us. We made a neighbourly gesture as such which was to give them a plate of homemade biscuits at Christmas back in 2006, and then homemade fairy cakes Christmas 2007. The ones in 2006 were also kind of welcome to the neighbourhood as they moved in about 2 weeks before Christmas. We did know one of the neighbours who lived at 94 but we didn’t really talk as she always seemed to be on a mission to get somewhere quickly.

Now Chris and I have moved to our own flat, I can tell you the names of three of the other four people in our building but that’s all I can tell you. Well other than the fact that the lady directly downstairs from us really likes to watch Flog It! She always has it on really loud!

Do you know your neighbours? Would you like to get to know them better? What could you do to create communication with them? 

You can find more of my rambles here.