Posted on 06/07/2017 11:21:34 AM PDT by simpson96
I am glad I am this old so I don’t have to live in this cold, uncaring world for 50 more years. Many Americans appear to have become shallow, immoral, intolerant, and hateful.
Let me tell you about my Southern California neighborhood. I have lived in this one for 22 years. I don’t know anyone, but it’s not for lack of trying. Each time a new neighbor moves in I bake a loaf of bread and take it to them. They thank me at the door and then close it. That is the last I see of them other than when they go to their cars.
One neighbor was pregnant and her husband was employed, so I gave her my phone number just in case she needed anything. She thanked me and didn’t give me her number. We spoke over the fence occasionally, but not in any way that would turn us into buddies or even casual friends. They moved.
Our newest neighbors dropped a card on our front porch before their bread was baked to tell us their names and gave us their phone number. I still have it four years later. I baked the bread and the mister thanked me at the door. I have never met the Mrs. in person.
I hosted a coffee klatch and made up fliers and put them on the 12 nearest homes. I got donuts, cut up fruit, and made coffee and tea. Six people came, drank the tea, and no one touched the donuts or fruit. They chatted about who all used to live here in this neighborhood over the years, said thank you and left. No one asked a single question of me. I have never been to their homes or had a conversation with any of them since.
(Excerpt) Read more at thefederalist.com ...
Did you ever think it was you?
They are just not into you...
Ha!
Maybe they were glutenoids...............
I was walking by a park yesterday and some kids were throwing around a baseball. On an over-throw the ball got lost. One of the kids (teenagers) was looking underneath parked cars across the street from where I was walking. I spotted the ball at the curb up the street from where he was looking (he wasn’t even close) and I called out to him and pointed out the ball. He ran over and picked it up and didn’t say a word to me, not even a grunt of thanks.
I didn’t care, but I did notice, and I do remember. I know I would have said thanks when I was a kid.
And, maybe, they just think you are just a left wing kook...
++++
I had hoped that when Barack Obama was elected we would not only continue our healing from sad historical periods (slavery, and the hard times of civil unrest), but our nation would also be united, blessed, and even better, for we are all Americans. Instead, it was further divided. The division is worse, tolerance is a forgotten word, and feelings are hurt over nothing.
You just keep doing things and trying to be freindly.
Every group needs a cheerleader to move things along.
Apparently you’re it.
The wife and I lived in El Segundo for 2 years in the 1990’s. We knew two families well enough to say hi to on the street, but all of the others stayed indoors and to themselves. One neighbor, a few houses up, wanted to expand their home and could only go up with it. His immediate neighbor sued him because the new second story blocked the immediate neighbor’s view of the waste treatment plant. Go figure.
California has been that way at least since I was growing up there in the mid-70's. Your friends are not your neighbors. Your friends live 20 miles away and you usually only see them at work or at occasional weekend events.
Try to import the Midwestern "block party" ethic and you will just get ignored. It's not their culture.
Upon returning home from work, I saw a dog loose in the neighborhood. Another neighbor and I got the dog and returned it to it’s home. The owner guy came out and took the dog inside. The End. No thanks, no nothing.
Depressing but true.
Remember how kids from different houses used to play together in the street? Now, they get hustled from organized activity to organized activity. If you see kids on the street, it actually makes you sit up and take notice. That is kind of indicative of the roots of this narrative.
I think I see the problem.
We live on a horse shoe shaped street with 5 houses on it. Up to about 2 years ago, we knew everybody on our circle, talked regularly and keep an eye on each other’s property when we are away. Mixed races, retired military, elderly and young.
Then a new family moved in, retired AF, and they are the most unfriendly neighbors we have ever met.
They live across the horse shoe street from my house.
Their immediate neighbor to their left, people we have known for 15 years, tried to meet up with them when they first moved in, being friendly and wanting to get them to know all of us.
The new people told them, point blank, “We don’t want to be your friends, just your neighbors.” And that was the last anybody ever spoke to them.................
His immediate neighbor sued him because the new second story blocked the immediate neighbor’s view of the waste treatment plant.
= = =
Maybe if the new second story had an un-shaded bathroom window facing the immediate neighbor ... ?
I can give a very similar list but add to it that I drive people to the airport, watch their houses when away, pick up papers and mail, send holiday food and... on and on...
Few ever offer anything in return...It is just the way it is and I am not going to let them make me be like them. I get pleasure from what I do. That’s what counts!
50 years? Heck, at over 80 I am happy for each hour!
Southern ca - that’s all you need to say. I lived there from birth until 4 years ago. Being neighborly and bringing over a cake is a White thing. Los angeles unified school district, which I attended is now 8 percent White! I kid you not. European civilizations are just incomprehensible to others. I don’t care about their sh&$ and they don’t care about ours
Read The Vanishing Neighbor by Mark Dunkleman. Mark is a progressive and his family has close connection to Hillary Clinton, but he is perceptive and open to other ideas. He sometimes finds his way to discussions on Federalist.com.His book is based on his experience as a kid moving to a new state and exteapolated to a description of how communities have lost their anchors.
Depends on the neighborhood.
I’ve lived in 2 neighborhoods in the same zip code.
First neighborhood was comprised of people of very similar backgrounds, similar cultures, and ages. We had a block party once a year, neighborhood getogethers for Halloween and July 4th. Men’s caroling was the Friday evening before Christmas, and was always expected by PJ-clad kids and wives with plates of cookies and libations.
Second neighborhood was mixed culture. Whites made up a third, asians a third, and indians a third. We know 2 neighbors well enough to say hi and chat for a few minutes. The rest won’t even make eye contact and don’t seem to understand that sidewalks are for walking, not the middle of the street.
Multiculturism is the death of America.
“I had hoped that when Barack Obama was elected we would not only continue our healing from sad historical periods (slavery, and the hard times of civil unrest), but our nation would also be united, blessed, and even better, for we are all Americans. Instead, it was further divided. The division is worse, tolerance is a forgotten word, and feelings are hurt over nothing.”
I personally know a few who voted for the Fraud simply BECAUSE of what you hoped.
I also remember reading quite a bit of exactly what the Fraud stood for, and saw Big Media’s fawning before his election, and knew that what you hoped for would never come to pass with the Fraud in office.
Rush had some very specific predictions that came true, such as there would never be allowed any criticism of the Fraud because of the color of his skin, which came to pass for eight long years.
The Fraud and his “wife” PROUDLY used racism to try to divide and destroy all for which America stands.
Oh, I almost forgot about the ‘bread’ thing. We did something similar. We have a tangerine tree and its fruit usually ripens around January, right after New Years.
We pick it all and bag a dozen or so for each of our neighbors.
That first year we gave them a bag and didn’t get so much as a thank you.........................
People just move more, for more and more reasons, and neighborhood life is not what it one was. People dont know their own family under their own roof the way they used to, they arent going to expend energy to know the neighbors. And you cant ask a neighbor to even do or dont do a little thing without it becoming a big deal.
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