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What happened to real communities?

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  • breakingcontact

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    Oct 16, 2012
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    I hate to sound like an old timer or some country bumpkin...but when i was a kid we knew our neighbors. You could borrow tools out of your neighbors garage, if you were walking down the road people would ask if you needed a ride, if you left your garage door open or anything was out of the ordinary the old lady across the street would call you.

    Im not some dummy yearning for some false overly idealistic yesteryear.

    Seriously though. We had community back then.

    Maybe its me living in a big city now and not a little town. Hows the real community situation by you? The only places i really experience true community anymore is through church and the shooting community.

    Im moving into a new to me house in a small subdivision soon and im really hoping to find some real community there. If its not there ill try to foster it.
     

    Vaquero

    Moving stuff to the gas prices thread.....
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    Apr 4, 2011
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    Dixie Land
    I wish you well.
    Our neighborhood is spotty, I guess.
    Little old lady across the road has been here since 82.
    Weve been here 7 years. Everyone else is under a year.
    I gotta say, it aint all been improvement, but not all bad.

    Sometimes it is what you make it.
     

    breakingcontact

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    I wish you well.
    Our neighborhood is spotty, I guess.
    Little old lady across the road has been here since 82.
    Weve been here 7 years. Everyone else is under a year.
    I gotta say, it aint all been improvement, but not all bad.

    Sometimes it is what you make it.

    I certainly agree community is something you have to participate in, its not a spectator sport.
     

    txbikerman

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    Its harder now . Kids used to go outside to play, with their friends. Now they play video games or are the computer.I have lived in neighborhoods where some had been there a long time, and you could get to know them. people these days move so often its hard to get to know them.
     

    txinvestigator

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    Before we moved in July, all of my neighbors were close. We checked on each other, helped each other and were friends. When Lynne, the school teacher who lived across the street had AAA at her house I stopped in to check. She had a dead battery and they got her car started. She told me she was headed up to Auto Zone to get a battery, thanked me for checking on her and left. I just could not let her deal with that alone. I told my wife I was headed to AZ and left. Once I got there she had her battery already, but her car would not start again. I changed it for her right there. When a transformer was blown on our side of the street in mid July one year, Lynne came and got us to spend the evening enjoying her AC.

    Patty next door called us when she saw some someone suspicious hanging out in front of our house. When her ex came around being loud, I went outside to "say hi". When Tom down the street was hurt from work, I mowed his yard. He always helped me with with landscaping.

    We all had cook outs together, we went out to dinners, etc.

    The sense of community is there for those who work at it. ;)
     

    Southpaw

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    Mar 30, 2009
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    Guadalupe Co.
    Maybe its me living in a big city now and not a little town. Hows the real community situation by you? The only places i really experience true community anymore is through church and the shooting community.

    .

    I grew up in a small town and I still have that in me. But living in San Antonio, while I personally don't consider it city where I am, it is and the people act accordingly. I always make it a point to at least introduce myself to anyone new moving in and always say hello, good morning or good night, if I see my neighbors here and there. Sometimes they don't know how to take it but they usually come around when they realize I am not looking harming or hustling them. It seems some are just conditioned to living in fear.

    We are planning on moving out ASAP though. As I get older I feel I need more and more space away from too many people. ;)
     

    breakingcontact

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    Its harder now . Kids used to go outside to play, with their friends. Now they play video games or are the computer.I have lived in neighborhoods where some had been there a long time, and you could get to know them. people these days move so often its hard to get to know them.

    That is certainly a lot of it. Entertainment is a solo venture now whereas before it was something you needed others to partake in such as baseball or other sports.

    The high mobility rate is an issue too. Ive been guilty of that living in apartments. I think subconciously you dont want to put time into building relationships with neighbors if you will only live somewhere a year or two.
     

    breakingcontact

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    Txinvestigator...thats how it was when i lived in a small coal mining town full of the descendants of Italian immigrants. I helped my old neighbor lady with stuff she needed around the house like installing hand rails since she was super old but not giving up that house. She made me real Italian food and id sit on her porch with her after work.

    Ive been doing the apartment thing for a few years and it is just gross how little community there is. Its not natural in that setting but people should step up anr extend themselves in friendship and community.
     

    Mikeinhistory

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    Feb 19, 2013
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    Austin, TX
    Moved into Hyde park in August. All our neighbors except the obvious college students came and introduced themselves. Even in Los Angeles I knew my neighbors on both sides. When I lived in apartments though I never knew anyone.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free
     

    breakingcontact

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    Hyde Park is a very "alive" neighborhood. I think in a lot of those nice neighborhoods in Austin people are very proud of their hoods so they are social to promote and protect it.
     

    jordanmills

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    Big cities. I miss living in a small town. The girl I'm seeing does, but she doesn't really know any of her neighbors. Comes from growing up in san Antonio and Austin, I guess.

    I've tried here, but I barely know the people next door. When they come home, they open the garage door (with the remote), pull in, and close the door. That's about all I see of them now that their very cute very flirty daughter has moved out (which is probably for the best, sigh).

    Dunno what to do about it. It takes two.
     

    shortround

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    I live in a small enclave in a large welfare city where the neighbors know each other. We have a preacher, physician, dentist, police sergeant, retired civil servant, two widows, two young couples with lots of kids, and dirt bags who roam the neighborhood looking for a cheap score.

    One of the neighbors ran some dirt bags off last Saturday with his shotgun. He did not shoot them because they ran into the road and dropped the stuff they stole from his property.

    We are on high alert here, and every neighbor has a telephonic notification tree. See something, call your neighbors, then the police.

    The folks around here are so fed up with the "moochers" that it is only a matter of time a dirt bag takes a dirt nap.

    We are the "first responders."

    Cops clean up the scene and take notes.
     

    F350-6

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    I used to know everyone who lived in a house within sight of my front and back porch, and several others beyond how far I could see. I used to enjoy my talks with the old man who would stop by and tell me stories while we sat on the porch. He was born in 1901 and would tell me about his first ride into town on a wagon, where the Indians used to camp near where I live, the first time he saw a car, when they first ran electricity out to his family farm, etc.

    Several years ago a different old man passed his land down to his son, who promptly sold it to a developer to build houses on 10 - 20 acre lots. Now there's an extra dozen houses within view and I only know some of them. I was nice and neighborly at first when folks started moving in, then a few of the new owners got together and started going door to door and trying to get everyone to agree to forming an homeowners association. I asked why, they gave me the usual BS. I asked them to leave and never come around again if they wanted to talk about homeowners associations.

    They moved back to the big city a short time later, but I never went to meet any new neighbors after that. All of them came from town anyway, and probably don't consider me a close neighbor just because I'm within sight. 1000 yards or more isn't even the same neighborhood where some of them come from anyway, so maybe I'm not being rude anyway. Or maybe I've just turned into that old guy who screams get off my lawn to all the passers by.
     

    Dhayes

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    You've all seen my posts about what goes on around here. It was nice when we first moved in, but it has gone to crap in the last few years. We have 3 good neighbors in our pod of 6 homes. The folks next to us on our right,the folks next to them, and the young couple with 2 kids in front of our house. That house to the left of us has been cursed with low life idiot renters after an investor bought it and rented it.
     

    breakingcontact

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    D, why do you stay? I mean there is something to be said about sticking it out but why do you stay if its so frustrating?

    Im hoping my little affordable subdivision doesnt go like so many have around the Austin suburbs. Its just inexplicable to me how these communities run down so quickly.

    Im planning on sticking it out too though if my new hood starts to slide. Im a romantic and id like to think that a solid community will stay resilient.
     

    Younggun

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    Growing up I knew all the neighbors, played in the streets and neighbors yards, and got my butt whooped if I did something dumb cause they all knew my parents. Seems that has changed even in my hometown now.

    I have 2 neighbors within sight now. One is terrible, the other has a shredder and we have a tractor. We both keep our property mowed.

    My dad takes eggs to John the hay guy. The orchard man gives us blackberries. Another "neighbor" a mile up the road borrows the tractor to plow his arena to practice roping. He helps is out from time to time when he can.

    Being spread out over a couple of miles we know more about each other than the "neighbors" in my old neighborhood.
     

    Dhayes

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    D, why do you stay? I mean there is something to be said about sticking it out but why do you stay if its so frustrating?

    Im hoping my little affordable subdivision doesnt go like so many have around the Austin suburbs. Its just inexplicable to me how these communities run down so quickly.

    Im planning on sticking it out too though if my new hood starts to slide. Im a romantic and id like to think that a solid community will stay resilient.
    We seem to have better neighbors now that "psycho boy" and his parents and brother were evicted. I hope the new people are not a nightmare like the last 2 families of people were.
     

    breakingcontact

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    I suppose the real big picture about my "rant" on community, is that it was formerly families, community and church that provided for people when they were down and out. When the community needed something the community got together to provide for themselves. Now there is a void, and the gubbermint is more than happy to fill it.

    We need to restore families, faith and community to really turn this thing around.
     
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