Published on 12, July, 2020
I'm letting off steam by talking about my neighbours. Others are welcome to join with their problems/experiences
I know some of us have big problems dealing with our neighbours. There is a recent thread about serious harassment.
I and my family have always had problems with our neighbours. Often it's our fault, sometimes it's the eccentric/nutty neighbours with their peculiar habits. An additional problem was language. Both my parents were WWIi refugees from eastern Europe, and they never learnt to speak adequate English. Much of their behaviour was trying to disguise that fact because they were secretly ashamed of it.
At present I live in a first floor flat and I get the feeling my neighbours are shunning me. No surprise. I'm anti social, I talk to myself and take photographs from my windows of the local wildlife.
Previously I lived with my parents in house with a large garden. And They had more mental health issues than me. On that Street we were shunned by the normal residents
One neighbour who I never spoke with used to hide as I walked past. At that time I was either studying or working away from home and came home once a week or two weeks. As I walked past his house, I noticed a quick swift movement as he hid behind a tree or went round the side of his house. I finally found out the reason for this on the day of his funeral!!!!
Another neighbour who I will call Mrs K was an eccentric,. Spoke my mother's language and at one time used to visit us up to 4 times a day. On her way to church, on her way home. On her way to the shops, on her way home. She was always stressed out, in a bad mood and depressing. Short conversations were complaining about her next door neighbour (FOR TWENTY YEARS) what time he comes in at night, knocking nails, moving furniture, his drunken tenants, his gardening, him sitting outside his house enjoying the sunshine. My mother joked, " if he farts in his own house, she will come round here and complain about it". Other news she always have us from her daily church visits. Were, who's died and when's the funeral.
I avoided her as much as possible. Eventually she fell out with my mother over trivia and didn't visit or speak to her again for ten years, until they both past away in the same month.
Then we had a Mrs M. Very different from Mrs K. This woman became a pest. Started of very well. She was very sociable and smiling and first time I spoke to her she told me. 'your family is not very popular on this street' that was an understatement.
Physically she was very healthy. But mentally unstable,. She started coming round every day and complaining that people wouldn't talk to her, were shunning her etc. Whenever I was doing something in the garden or external house maintenance, she came round with a big smile, round face, hypnotic voice and very very strong eye contact . And started a conversation that just wouldn't end. Often about families, their health, holidays, relationships, who married to who, have they brothers and sisters, children, school. Work, etc etc etc. And this repetitive conversation would go on for well over an hour and then she came round a day or two later and repeated the whole boring conversation all over again and again and again.
No wonder people were avoiding her. Mrs K used to cross the road whenever she saw her in the distance.
When I moved out into a flat, she just kept on phoning me in a bad temper with the same conversation and always complaining that I don't phone her often enough. Until I changed my phone number.
End of rant for now. Need breakfast.
Lol! Yeah, I find that many people do a lot of that repetitive complaining and I now find it unbearable to listen to it, it’s too painful and they don’t like my honest remarks. I grew up on a good street and where I live now, people are pretty cool. They keep themselves to themselves but are friendly enough so it suits me, for now. You have a great gift for observation, you could turn your stories into a great and funny read. I’d buy the book. Your observations are hilarious and I love reading about people’s honest observations. People would be intrigued to hear more about Mrs K and Mrs M. You’ve got a gift for writing.
More information and I will come clean, my parents were Polish and so was Mrs K.
We first had regular contact with Mrs K when we moved into our house in 1979. She lived less than 100 yards up the road. I disliked her from the start. Especially a few months later when her elderly husband came round one evening and stayed with us until midnight. He looked terrified to return home and she stood at her gate Looking towards our house.
Also we never discovered her true age. Sometimes she claimed to be younger than my mother then she said she was older. Very evasive. My mother explained that this was common during WWII, when people lied about their ages for ulterior motives and then were stuck with false dates of birth on official documents. My mother admitted that she also has a false age during the war. When she was 17, the German army was taking over 15s into forced labour camps. Because she was small and skinny, her mother lied that she was only 14. So she was taken the following year as a 15 year old ( real age 18).
The other unusual fact about Mrs K was the age difference between her and her husband. Around 25 years!!!!
Her husband was a widower who went back to Poland to seek a new wife and met her. A 50 year old marrying a 25 year old. That is rare.
She annoyed me many times. Once she threatened to kick me in the head because I was working, repointing the garden wall on a Sunday.
And the bad blood with her neighbour went on for decades. She was often complaining that is was a scandal that she, a decent respectable woman had to live next to a doss house full of drunks.
When her neighbour passed away around 1997, she was coming round several times a day, full of insincere concern for one of his tenants call Tommy, what's going to happen to Tommy?, Where will he go? Etc etc.
I suggested to her that since she lives alone in a three bedroom house, then she should take him in. She blew up! 'i won't let that drunken tramp into me house'. She stormed out and we didn't seeher for months. I felt good
In 2000 her relationship with my mother broke down completely. One day they were talking about what someone said about somebody else. The next morning they continued the conversation and disagreed about what was said the previous day. My mother said that from now on she would write down everything Mrs K said so she wouldn't forget it. Mrs K stormed out threatening never to return and she didn't.
Afterwards Whenever I met her in the street she was really unpleasant. Asking if she had bought her self a little red book?, Is she writing down what I say?,. What's she going to do with it?,. Is she going to publish it?, How much money does she think she will make from it?