>More Suburban Turmoil!
>I’ve always thought of my cul-de-sac as a quiet one, filled with normal homeowners who kept their grass suitably tended and minded their own damn bidness.
That is until the other night, when I went to a backyard barbeque at my next-door neighbor’s house.
It was a small gathering, with only three neighborhood couples present. Three couples with enough subdivision gossip to keep me sitting on the edge of my deck chair long after I’d planned to go home.
“You know that black-and-white dog that used to always hang around our street? It belonged to the Smithsons on River Ridge and last week, their neighbor shot him. They said it was barking all the time.”
“Melvin told Darren that some neighborhood boys said a van full of Mexicans was driving around the neighborhood the other day, offering kids ten dollars to come up to their van!”
“There’s an old man on Blossom Hills who chased some kids the other night when they were setting off fireworks on the street.”
And where was I while all this was happening? Probably sitting clueless inside my house with the A/C on full blast, typing out stupid stories on my computer. I have got to get out more.
My next-door neighbor had most of the lowdown, mostly because he walks the big loop of our subdivision nearly every day, and often stops to chat with the neighbors. Come to think of it, when I was pregnant and walking our streets for exercise, I knew a lot more about the goings on around here. I almost always had a few interesting neighborhood stories to report to Hubs and the girls over dinner.
I think Baby and I might have to start casing this neighborhood joint once again, in search of some new intrigue. For one thing, if that van comes back, I could really use the extra cash. I’m hoping I can even convince them to raise their offer to twenty.
More suburban turmoil! This is a landmine of opportunity!
>God, our neighborhood is the same way. We have the couple who refuse to stop at the stop sign. Even went so far as to take photos of my children riding bikes on the street (the nerve)! They said kids don’t belong on the streets. Well, if you don’t have sidewalks, where the hell do you expect them to ride? Needless to say we had to have professional intermediaries to help with this one. How do I know they’re not perverts who won’t put my kids’ pics on the internet? Sickos.Then there’s the guy who walks the neighborhood LOOKING for gossip. The people you avoid because they’ll never shut up once you get them started. The single woman who we all thought MAYBE she’s a lesbian, then she got a female roommate and decided, “Yep, she is.” The older single sisters who do nothing but bitch and moan. And that’s if they acknowledge you. One of them won’t even wave if you drive by and make eye contact. Oh, and then there’s my in-laws…:-)
>LOL- who knew!!! all this freaking gossip and enough material for a sitcom!!!! go for it- get out more- but be a listener, instead of a talker- that way they’ll have no dirt on you! LOL
>You’re very blessed. Not knowing many people in our neighborhood, David and I have to get our gossip the old fashioned way — we just make stuff up.
>Haha! Good luck with that twenty! 😉
>When I worked from home last year I had my laptop set up in our dining room so that I could look out the window and scope out the ‘hood.
>I live on a dirt road with only five houses. However, if I’m walking the road, the neighbors ALWAYS stop! It’s so much fun.
>I live in a regular Melrose Place here and TRUST ME, it is better off not being “in the know.” I’ve been in most places and now choose to be as far off the grapevine as I possibly can. Ignorance is bliss!
>Wow what exciting things you heard let me tell you. It’s cool to live on those quiet blocks. I mean seamingly quiet.
>I get all my dirt at my sons’ friends birthday parties–you know, while the kids are going berserk at the gymastics center or the petting zoo or wherever, the mothers sit around and talk. And the talk ALWAYS turns to who is having an affair or whose husband left her for another man or who is filing for bankruptcy.I hate those parties, but I come home feeling pretty damn good about my marriage and our finances.
>HEHEEH. Yeah, start stalking, I mean walking and you’ll get all the dirt. 🙂 Then you can write about here and we’ll all pretend you like on Wysteria Lane in Desperate Housewives tv-land.
>Luckily for us, there are only 8 houses on our street and most of the neighbors are nice. Thank goodness b/c we had to move from our previous townhouse b/c of a neighbor from hell!
>We don’t know any of our neighbors names! That’s how uninvolved we are. And we like it that way. We’re probably the ones being talked about at neighborhood functions.
>When we lived in LA our block use to have fairly regular block parties and each and every time I would come away scared shitless…rumors, gossip, urban myths and legends, oh my! When we moved back east we adopted a strict “no eye contact” policy with neighbors to insure we never get invited to neighborhood events or give them the opening to say anything more than hello…actually, we try to limit contact to distant waves.
>Go forth and conquer, woman! We’re all waiting 😉
>I only know a couple of our neighbors – there are quite a few rentals, so it isn’t a terribly stable community. In the summer it really gets to cooking so you don’t see folks outside. We don’t even walk the pups for fear fo “hot paws”. It is almost 9:30PM and it is still 106.I guess as long as there isn’t a drop house for illegals or meth lab next-door, everything is ok.
>Wow, not much happening here in my neighborhood! Dang, i knew this place was boring….thanks for the stories, though.Oh and btw, is that you in the photo? You’re really pretty 🙂
>Sounds like you’ve got enough material for the next couple months.
>I live on a tiny road with about ten other families and the gossip is plentiful!An added bonus is that if I happen to walk by in the evening just before dinner, and they are sitting out having a before-dinner-glass of wine, I almost always get invited to join them.
>You crack me up!!! When Hannah was a month old I looked outside my window and there were 20 swat team people busting in on the people next store.I came outside and every neighbor was on their front step.It was wild!! Neighbors were asking me what happened. It was gossip for months.We also have a neighbor that knows everything that is going on. All the neighbors go to him if something is wrong to see if he has seen anything.Who knew that when you live in a nice neighborhood drug busts happen.
>We get all our gossip from Dylan’s friends’ Dad. He lives across the street and I’m pretty sure he knows when our dog farts. In the house. He’s that good.
>Subdivisions are all like Wisteria Lane. I try to stay out of it because gossip makes me roll my eyes, but sometimes it’s better to know stuff for safety reasons (like the van). On the other hand, great blog fodder. I need to start paying more attention.
>I’m told that the former occupants of my home and the former occupants of the house across the street caused quite a stir long ago. Apparently, the wife in my house and the husband in the other were having an affair. Everybody knew about it and would listen in on their phone conversations over the cordless phones (remember when you could hear other conversations on those when they were still kinda new?) This couple ended up married AND their spouses ended up married. Sadly, both marriages ended in divorce. sniff sniff