You & your neighbours

Yeah; he tried to bully my friend, Joe, next door, when we were about 14.
He was also an Italian. I defended him. He was a good guy.


That was b4 he murdered his son.

A few days after he was arrested for the murder,
I saw him standing in his front yard, not as nasty in his demeanor as usual -- just staring forward blankly into the distance,
for long periods of time.
He was probably out on bail.

I dunno, but I suspect, that he regretted the murder.





David

I recall that he said that his son "Just wouldnt listen"

He said that?
Well, he probably did not listen much after he got killed.




How is your chicken farming going ?





David

Stories from my neighbourhood:

Tin Tin & his Young Bride returned from their month's holiday this morning.
I heard signs of life for the first time in ages from next door & gathered up all their mail I'd been collecting for them in their absence.

I was in my pajamas when I knocked on their door to deliver their mail this morning. They were in their pajamas, too.
A passing person in the street stopped & gaped at all of us standing there in our pajamas.
Some sort of weird neighbourhood ménage à trois?

The Lawn Mower Lady is being driven crazy by the mess constantly created by all the falling leaves from neighbourhood trees.
She's been sweeping them up, off the road & off the footpath, almost as they fall!
After she'd mowed our neighbourhood nature strip (in front of our homes in the street) within an inch of its life the other day, I came across her picking off yellowing leaves from a bush in her front yard. Better to catch them before they fall. She hates a mess!

Very sad news for my next door neighbour, on the other side of my place to Tin Tin & his young bride.
Her younger sister died this week. Cancer. Which they had believed was in remission.
I had no idea & only found out when I knocked on her door to ask her permission for my friend & I to enter her backyard so we could prune a difficult-to-reach section of a tree we were pruning in my yard.
I felt terrible for intruding when I found out she was going to the funeral very soon.
Sigh.
Yesterday I left her a big bag of lemons on her doorstep, culled after a major prune of my friend's gigantic lemon tree.
Soon I will pass on a bag of mandarins from my bumper harvest. I know she likes them.

I saw her in the supermarket yesterday, when I was shopping there at the same time.
She looked like a ghost.

So, I was hoping I wouldn't have to ask, but how are things going between you & your neighbours?

Funny you should ask
We live in a gated community and as such, we have a HOA (homeowners association) and monthly meetings. I rarely attend, but for some reason I did last Thursday and to me, these meetings are like a reality show - sometimes very entertaining! We have some very wealthy Mexican families living in my community who feel quite protected because it's gated, but they're used to bribing and paying people off in order to get what they want. The HOA stopped them and some of the Mexican ring leaders came to the meeting. One of them - I dubbed the "the Godfather" with all his heavy jewelry - was the family patriarch. Several of his grown children also have houses in the community and they received violation notifications they're not happy with.

"The Godfather" was very soft spoken and quite charming actually, he even smiled when he threatened the board with a costly litigation that can tie up the HOA's funds for years to come if his demands are not met immediately, but unfortunately he also built several additions to his house without proper building permits from the city, so the HOA had some leverage to counter his threat. They mutually agreed to sit down at a later point to discuss further steps.

After that, it got quite boring and we left the meeting. I am very friendly with my immediate neighbors and we attended the meeting together, so
we still talk laughingly about "The Godfather"

Interesting, Jane.
I've often wondered about how things work in these "gated communities" I've read about on A2K. I'm not sure I properly understand the concept. Does it mean something like a neighbourhood housing arrangement which is a "gated" or a closed off community, accessible only to the residents?
Well, that's my best guess from a long way away.

If my understanding is close to the mark (& please correct me if it isn't) I imagine that there would be any number of decisions that the residents would be required to make that would affect the whole community.
And I'd imagine that some residents (like "the Godfather") would have quite a number of their own agenda items!
I have a feeling that these meetings could become very wearing at times!
Tell me more.

Our farm is at a hilltop and theres a main road that goes right by us and continues into town. SO there is a long climb to the hilltop and then its a long downhill ride of about 3 miles into town . I often will pick up a bunch of Amish kids who are wending their way to the top of the hill to be able to enjoy a 3 mile ride into town , often at high speed. SO theres a commensal relationship going on. Since its been very hot Ive hooked up a hose from an outside pasture faucet and Ive put on a spring actuated spray head so that the AMISH, when they are driving their horse drawn buggies up to the hilltop, they will stop and water thwor horses and spray their hooves so that they dont founder from the terrible firey macadam road.
I always remember that a horses hoof is the equivalent of you walking on your middle fingers. They founder quite easily and, in the heat, these work and buggy horses are most vulnerable.

SO. My AMish neighbors recognize the hose and what its there for and they shovel up any manure and one AMish guy left a wooden box where the drivers will shovel and deposit the horse manure (Which I use in the garden).
Also, ever so often, on the bench next to the hose , someone will often leave a dozen eggs or a shoo fly pie.

Not a bad deal this commensalism

That was a good deed, farmer.





David

Well, every "gated community" is different, MsOlga - ours here is more relaxed than in some areas, probably because we don't have too many common areas to be concerned with. Yes, it's completely closed off - we have a big wall (that's almost completely covered with greenery) on one side and a canyon on the other side in addition to 24 hour security personnel at the main gate.

When I first moved here many moons ago, I was alone - no child or man yet - and I liked the security. My life has changed but we still like the security factor and some other amenities like pools, tennis, fitness, huge park, playgrounds etc. Yes, we pay for it but I don't have to hassle with the gardener, pool boy, join a fitness center and so on - been there, done that and it's very pricey, time consuming and aggravating dealing with all these people, especially when they're unreliable. So I rather pay for these amenities and don't have the headache with it.

What I like the most here is that on the weekends is absolutely quiet - no gardeners mowing the lawn, no leaf blowers no nothing....we enjoy that
tremendously.

Sure there are problems here and there with other home owners but then
you have a HOA who takes care of it. When you live close to the beach as we do, I treasure some piece and quiet. I've lived at the beach where my neighbors rented out the house to a bunch of students for the summer and on the weekend we practically had to take naps in the afternoon because we knew that the students will party all night long. I just got tired (not to mention, older too) of all the noise and aggravation. I still want the convenience of being close to the beach, but without all the side effects....

You always have the best stories about your neighbors the Amish...
plus I like what you do for them - you're a good man, farmerman!

That made me smile.

My next door neighbors have had a number of on-going struggles. They were the ones who burned the leaves, tried to grow grass in the woods, went bankrupt, got divorced, and supposedly lost the house (although the husband and son still live there).

A few weeks ago we had a severe thunderstorm rip through the area and it took down over a dozen trees along their part of the road. One of the trees took out their fencing around their pool and another one came down on their roof and caused significant damage to the house including creating an open gash into the upper (attic?) area of the house. And there it sits. Still resting on the house, still wide open to the elements. With all the rain and high temps we've had since then I can only imagine the mold problems that are accumulating inside.

Very kind & thoughtful of you to cater for those horses' needs in the extreme heat you've been experiencing in your part of the world, farmer.
Good on you.
If there was a 2011 Good Neighbour Award on this thread, I'd give it to you for that.

And I love the way the Amish have responded to your thoughtfulness.
All of this happened, apparently, without any discussion between you & them.
Very nice.

Thank you for such a detailed explanation, Jane.
Now I know.
And understand how it works!

JPB, do you supposed your neighbours' house is jinxed?
It certainly sounds like it to me!
So much bad luck!


It sounds like this last bit of bad luck might have been the straw that broke the camel's back. (Unless your neighbours have been away & aren't aware of the damage?)
Pretty depressing, the house just being left like that.

Just one more quick post here, to those of you who are "new-ish" to A2K ....
This thread about neighbourhood stories - the good, the bad & the ugly - has been running for yonks.
If you need it, this is an official invitation for you to post your stories, too!

I am largely (well, you know me, when I am for something or against it, I get larger) personally plotzed by gated communities. It's a task for me to count the ways they cause me concern, while the communities do vary from one to another. They are with us, have been for a long time.

I'm not sure that my uncle with the money was either less safe at the water in Balboa than he would have been in an enclave. Earlier he had what would be called an estate now (just some land with a house) in the present, even in down time, Brentwood multimillion core. That area is patrolled.

I think- re the gated thing - that it comes down to fear, and I understand the reasonable fears.

I also think this kind of thing is a function of a very unequal society.

Hello, osso
Yes, I can see the pro & con arguments for gated communities ...
But personally, I'd prefer to not become involved in a discussion about them on this particular thread.
Simply because I'd like people to post here secure in the knowledge that they won't feel criticized for how they live.
I hope you don't take this as a criticism of you, but I really enjoy hearing from anyone & everyone who cares to post here as spontaneously & openly as they like & wouldn't want anyone to feel discouraged from doing so.

That said, I'm hoping more of you will post your stories here!