In your whole life who has been your favorite neighbor, and why?

[Anonymous]

As a kid: one of our next door neighbors. Reasons: 1. They let me in when I got locked out and needed the bathroom. 2. The guy invited me and my mom to his church to see the Christmas decorations (we're Jewish). It was my first (only?) time in a church, the decor was pretty. 3. He is ex-FBI and wrote a book on personal and home safety. He gave our family one for free, and everyone in my house read it.

As an adult: I've never talked to any neighbors as I haven't lived in the best areas. But at one point in the studio apartment next door to me was a couple with a daughter. Sometimes they'd let the daughter have a sleepover, and I could hear the girls giggling late into the night, and it was the sweetest sound.

[Anonymous]

It’s not the same world you grew up in.

[Anonymous]

My favorite neighbors were in a dodgy but cheap dusty southwestern town. There was an extended family occupying two houses across the street from each other- one next to us and one across the street from us. I was working from home a lot - DH and I took turns keeping an eye out. These people were so entertaining- they would get falling down stoned on something and start fighting each other. Strange Cars would pull up at all hours- and keep the motor running. Once they had a cookout- don’t know what they were cooking but the fuel appeared to be anything in the yard that wasn’t nailed down.

One Day I was lucky enough to be home when 3 cop cars raced up, silently, with a canine,and after a very perfunctory announcement bashed the door on the son’s house across the street! Amazing! They took him out in handcuffs I got to tell DH all about it and he was so bummed he missed the spectacle.

A couple weeks later the man was back home with super short hair and a very conspicuous ankle bracelet.

Another neighbor on that block was Bill- an old super skinny gentleman who had lived there for 49 years. He went flying with his son every weekend, and would always tell us when he was going to fly overhead- so we would go out in the street and wave. He was a widow and he had left the laundry hanging on the line that his wife had put out the day she died.

I miss those people- all my other neighbors have been so boring.

[Anonymous]

DH and I have owned two houses and have been very fortunate re: our neighbors. In our DC Rowhome we all had young kids and it was like a built in friend group. We'd all hang out on our porches or lawns while the kids played outside. We often lent each other toys, clothes, random house items, etc.

In our house in the suburbs, our neighbors have also been great but we see them a bit less. They've offered to babysit when we needed, offered use of their garage or random appliances when things break, help check on things when we're out of town, etc. It doesn't seem like anything big but it's nice knowing I have people I can depend on close by.

[Anonymous]

We live across the country from our families. The elderly woman who lives behind us often invites us over for dinner or to play cards. We call her my son’s “stand in grandma”. Having in her in our life has been such a joy!

[Anonymous]

I had neighbors who I called at 3:30 AM when I went into labor and came over to stay with my toddler until family was able to get there. She was at my house at 3:35 and the baby was born at 4:20 AM.

[Anonymous]

Definitely not our current ones where their 14yo son climbed onto our townhouse roof from theirs to throw frozen burritos into the playground across the street. 🤦🏻‍♀️

[Anonymous]

As a kid, the old guy next door who kept chickens because he had been keeping them so long he was grandfathered when the zoning ordinance changed.

[Anonymous]

Neighbors moved in to the other half of the duplex I was renting at the time and we just hit it off. We were both outsiders in a town closed off to outsiders. I was getting divorced and our kids are the same age, and it was nice to befriend someone in a place very judgmental/suspicious of divorced women. We became fast friends and are still friends now, despite each of us having since moved away.

We were neighbors during Covid and it was so nice to have a true connection with someone nearby during such a stressful, isolating period. And on top of that she’s just a doll.

[Anonymous]

Not my neighbors with the constantly barking dogs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My favorite neighbors were in a dodgy but cheap dusty southwestern town. There was an extended family occupying two houses across the street from each other- one next to us and one across the street from us. I was working from home a lot - DH and I took turns keeping an eye out. These people were so entertaining- they would get falling down stoned on something and start fighting each other. Strange Cars would pull up at all hours- and keep the motor running. Once they had a cookout- don’t know what they were cooking but the fuel appeared to be anything in the yard that wasn’t nailed down.

One Day I was lucky enough to be home when 3 cop cars raced up, silently, with a canine,and after a very perfunctory announcement bashed the door on the son’s house across the street! Amazing! They took him out in handcuffs I got to tell DH all about it and he was so bummed he missed the spectacle.

A couple weeks later the man was back home with super short hair and a very conspicuous ankle bracelet.

Another neighbor on that block was Bill- an old super skinny gentleman who had lived there for 49 years. He went flying with his son every weekend, and would always tell us when he was going to fly overhead- so we would go out in the street and wave. He was a widow and he had left the laundry hanging on the line that his wife had put out the day she died.

I miss those people- all my other neighbors have been so boring.

I just love these stories!

I once lived in a cottage on a farm lane. The farm had bought six cottages, moved them to the lane, and rented them to students like me. We all got together for badminton, figure drawing, potlucks, and playing music. When a bad date found my little house,showed up one night, and wouldn't leave, my neighbor and my dog chased him off. The farmer's cat followed him around when he did chores. It was wonderful.

[Anonymous]

Farmer, not farm

[Anonymous]

My favorite neighbors are the ones who wave hello but otherwise keep to themselves.

[Anonymous]

My favorite neighbors are ones that don't write delusional, fact free emails to the HOA while wearing their tin foil hats.

[Anonymous]

When I was 7 we moved into a house opposite where an old lady and her husband lived. They had a red setter and an English setter (dogs) and one year she bred the red setter and let me come over and help feed the tiny puppies. that was probably one of the best things ever.