'Last Night The Old Gringo Smiled'

Haha jjorge that is a good quote. Admitting I have not noticed it before or if I did I did not get it.

Old Gringo's doing good work

*** More Ramblings on My Neighbors and Neighborhood ***

I've only been here for four months and I already know LOTS of my neighbors. They are a diverse lot.

Directly across the street from me on the opposite corner are C. and S. He (C.) is from Scotland and speaks with a delightful Aberdeenshire brogue. His charming wife is a caucasian American. They came to my first house party in March. They have a son at N.Y.U.

Next door to them are D. and E. a nice young Dominican couple. he speaks English and has some sort of high-tech job in Massachusetts. She is pretty and shy and as yet speaks little English. They have a cute, very tidy little house.

Next door to D. and E. is D.C. and his family.
(D.C. is the only one I've met thus far) He is a gregarious twenty-something of Portugese descent who has lived in this neighborhood all of his life and knows everybody..... I've learned a lot from him.

Across the street from D.C. is K, his wife, and young (about six) daughter. K. is a friendly young African-American fellow with dreadlocks.
I haven't met his wife yet, but his dtr is adorable. I see her most mornings when I'm walking my dogs. She waits on the front steps of her house , all spruced up with her pigtails and bookbag. When the school bus beeps from the corner near my house, K's daughter dashes the 75-100 yards to it.
I have a lot of respect for K and his wife's wisdom in having their child wait on her front step where they can monitor her rather than at the bus stop.

Next door to K., coming back toward my house are E. and I. They are a Dominican couple. We are becoming good friends. She works in community outreach for the Mayor's office and knows several of my long ago hispanic friends (from when I was involved in the Hispanic community 20+ years ago)
She has a daughter from a previous marriage who is entering Columbia Univ. law school in the Fall. E. and I. also came to my first house party.
...Oh yeh, 'Buddy' the dog (mentioned above) belongs to them.

Behind my house is a two family owned by an Asian fellow of about forty named H. (single I think). He tells me he has lived in that house all of his life and he is 'The last of the Mohicans' ie. his parents are now deceased and siblings have moved away. He's reserved but very pleasant. I believe he too works in some sort of high tech job in Massachusetts. Another neighbor tells me that H's brother is a Providence police officer.

Two houses beyond H. is the house of the A. family (who used to live in my house) mentioned above.

Across the street from H. is L. a friendly, pleasant, forty-something caucasian woman who has a cute cottage and garden. she appears to be single and there is no sign that she has children. I have an intuition that she is a school teacher. She has a broken section of fence that I called to her attention and offered to repair. (got to find time to do that this week)

Next to L. coming back towards my house is a two-family. A hispanic family with a couple (at least) of adolescent sons has just moved in. I haven't really met them yet.

Also in the two family are a brother and sister in their seventies, (W. and P.). He (W.) and I wave all the time but haven't really talked much.
P. and I meet up all the time walking and had said 'good morning numerous times before I realized that she was W's sister and introduced myself.

Last week she stopped to talk across the fence when I was working in my yard. P. told me that she (and presumably W.) was born in this country of a Cape Verdean father and a Narragansett Indian mother.
She also said how beautiful my yard looked. I told her I wanted to have her and W. over for a glass of lemonade or a beer when my yard is a little more polished. She replied, "Fine...and I bake cakes...and my children and grandchildren tell me they're pretty darn good. I think I'm going to bake you one!"
The next morning (Saturday) P. came across the street with a big '7-Up cake' for me. (It's 'Made with a bottle of Seven-up' and is somewhat like a big pound cake --but better)
It was WONDERFUL --and is now almost all gone.

Is this a great neighborhood or what?!!

It is indeed a great neighbourhood, and you are a great neighbour.

Thanks Sam. Knowing me, I'm sure I'll keep on blathering about the neighborhood.

Sounds like you have had a similar experience although this is perhaps a more diverse neighborhood.

Aw shucks! Thankee Bethy.

Great reading!

And definitely, YOU are a great neighbor. Mending fences and all.

jjorge

It all sounds wonderful! A fine neighbourhood to land in.

Would you mind explaining what a "two family" is, please?

A two family is a house split into two apartments. Like a duplex, but usually one above the other instead of side by side.

Thanks, Marycat!

Sorry to disagree, but on the east coast, two-family houses are frequently side by side--some times with a connecting porch.

Also, there is a developing use of "granny flats" or "mother-in-law apartments"--a suite of rooms attached to a house, but semi-independent.

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood....

Today's installment of "Mr. jjorge's Neighborhood"


This morning when I was walking my dogs young David hailed me from in front of his house where he was standing with his mother (apparently he was waiting for his school bus which was running late).

David introduced me to his mother and mentioned our conversation about getting some of the pears from my pear tree. His mother agreed and then she mentioned (what I already knew) that they had formerly lived in what is now my house.

She went on to say that her father was the first Portugese person to live in the neighborhood.
While his mother and I chatted, David took each of my dogs (one at a time) for short walks.

In the afternoon I did some work on my fence project. (I am constructing a fence of lattice) I put in three fence posts along the front edge of my yard. I am using a sort of beige, plastic lattice that matches my house nicely.

As I stood on the sidewalk admiring my work, one of the three girls who I had mentioned in my first post walked up. She took one look at the new section of fence and, with obvious disapproval, asked: "why are you putting up that fence?" I explained that it was an attempt to get a little more privacy.

jjorge

This is a delight to read!
I'm not sure how long you've lived in the "pear tree house". I gather you are fairly new?

Keep it coming jjorge this thread is one of the bright spots of my day.

Hi msolga!

to answer your question, I sold my house in the suburbs and moved into this house in the city on January 15th of this year.


My last post ended somewhat abruptly as it was 2a.m. here, I was sleep deprived, and I was literally falling asleep over my keyboard.

When I left off I was speaking with the disapproving little cutie who didn't like my lattice fence. I explained to her that I wanted the yard to be a little less open so that the whole neighborhood wouldn't see every time I scratched my nose, but, on the other hand, I had chosen the lattice so that someone on the sidewalk who wanted to look into the yard, or say 'Hello', or interact a little with my dogs, could do so.
She still seemed skeptical so I put it this way:

'Many people put big six-foot fences around their yard that are solid like a wall and nobody outside can see anything that is behind them. I didn't want to do that because I thought it would be shutting out my neighbors and would be sort of unfriendly. The lattice lets me have a little bit more privacy without turning my back on my neighbors.'

She seemed to understand that a little better. The girl incidentally reminds me a lot of my daughter when she was that age --ie. about nine or so -- She is cute as a button, very smart, and rather assertive but not in an inappropriate way.

This may seem a little silly but I have been mulling over ideas of how I can 'share' my beautiful yard with my neighbors a little. (most of them have very small yards or none at all).
I guess, in a way, that's why I chose lattice instead of conventional fence, and it's why I want to share the bounty of the pear tree.

Looks like you're going to be in for a big barbecue, George.

Am enjoying your journal as well.

...or something!


P.S.
How are you my friend? How's the Mrs?

Getting Around By Bus.

Well, well, another new adventure for this suburban transplant!

My truck is in the shop so I decided to take the bus for a couple of days.
There's a bus stop at the end of my street (one block) and it's a straight, 15 minute, 1.75 mile run into Kennedy Plaza in the center of the city
(on the #3 bus) for one dollar and a quarter. As a matter of fact it seems you can go ANYWHERE in the state of Rhode Island for $1.25 one way! Woonsocket, Warwick, the South County beaches, all of it ...even Newport.
and a one month pass for unlimited bus travel is only $45.

(Incidentally, the #3 bus goes right past the Newport ferry landing.
A round trip ticket is $14. Not bad for a 45 min. cruise down Narragansett Bay to a very neat place.)

Anyway...the bus stop downtown*, the buses -they're like a different world containing all the people we manage to avoid seeing when we're on the highway, at the mall, in our suburban neighborhoods etc. All the wheelchairs and crutches, all the poor clothes, all the brown and black faces, all the old people, the tiny butch lesbian with the short, short hair and baggy jeans...

A few look a little bit menacing (to one who has been wrapped in a suburban cacoon for years), a few look a bit odd, some are students, many have handicapped or elderly passes. all of them look interesting.

On my ride into the city I get to really LOOK at things. I notice cool little places and funky bars that I'd like to visit. we pass a strange looking club or bar with a one word name 'HELL'. I am fascinated. I'd like to see the inside...
...well, sort of... it's also a little intimidating. Maybe I should try 'Purgatory' first.

For the first time I notice where the bus stop is outside the hospital where I work. It's a five minute bus ride from my house. A little further on I notice the stop for the Childrens' Museum - a seven minute ride. The next time my sister visits with her young daughters we'll take the bus to the childrens' Museum!

All of a sudden I'm getting an idea. I want to get a one-month pass and go all over the state, get to know all the little nooks and crannies (maybe even the crooks and nannies) that I never really knew.

Hmmm... I can't exactly do it now as I'm working furiously to get my yard up to speed and getting to know my neighborhood.

Tentative plan: maybe do it in July or August...(developing)



* the RI bus system is laid out in a way that is VERY convenient for me.
98% of the the routes begin in Kennedy Plaza Providence, and fan out like spokes of a wheel.

Yep, you're turning into cityfolk, jjorge!

I remember having to go next door and apologize when we put curtains on our dining room windows. The houses were so close together that we always waved at each other from our dinner tables. The next day, someone would say, "What was that dessert you had last night?!" And we'd all laugh. They were almost like family. We knew they'd feel insulted if we put up a barrier. So from then on, we kept the curtains closed during the day, but always opened them at dinner so we could still smile and wave.

It's getting to be a routine.

I was out in my yard again yesterday afternoon/evening (still working on the lattice fence) and about ten or twelve kids came by over a span of three hours to give 'cookies' to, or interact with my dogs and to say hi. Several of my grown up neighbors came by too.

Among the kids was my young friend David who asked me (for the second day in a row) if the pears were ripe yet!