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.
NT neighbours are boring. It's the eccentrics/ND/***** that give life it's flavour and colour.
Another unusual/sad case. Sad the way it ended! Was Mr P. On the street I lived on until recently.
He was a power walker. We saw him at all times of day in all weathers walking very swiftly always having a plastic supermarket bag in his right hand. He was very alert full of energy full of of purpose. walking very fast. I could never keep pace with him.
On bin days I always set my alarm clock to 6:55am. Put on shoes and a jacket and went out to take the wheelie bins from inside the gate onto the public pavement. And Mr P was always passing by at that time, full of energy and purpose. Brief cheery hello and he was gone.
While I was eating breakfast around 9am, we saw him coming home. I mentioned it to my mother, he goes out at 7 back at 9, that's a short trip. She corrected me. No. He goes out at 7am every day. Comes back at 7:30am. Out at 8am back at 9am. This is his second trip of the day. And this power walking went on all day.
Nice chap, never said or did anything to harm us. but I never really knew him.
After I left that Street, I got a phone call from Mrs M that he had passed away. Another neighbour had found him lying in the street bleeding from a head wound. They helped him get back to his house and he refused offers to call a doctor or an ambulance. A week later his family concerned about his silence went to visit him and found him dead.
At his funeral I finally found out about his life. He was a chess fanatic. In the 1960s he had served as secretary of the British chess society.
He graduated from Oxford with a degree in French and Russian.
He took a master's in librarianship in Sheffield.
Spent his entire working life in Leeds university library with responsibility for eastern European and Slavonic studies.
Being fluent in Russian he often accompanied Russian chess grandmasters around UK chess tournaments.
His power walking only started after he was given early retirement.
Ahhhh and I agree, I love eccentric ND's, they certainly do make the world a better place and they are usually the only people I want to communicate with. I hope Mr P died in his sleep, peacefully, without fear or pain. I'm sending some love up to him and I hope his memory lives on in the minds of the many people he must have helped over the years. God rest Mr P.