MasterKalif
Posts: 648
Joined: 5/24/2004 Status: offline
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This is an interesting topic - I will never forget when I was a child and we (my parents and I) moved to Cobham, Surrey in the UK to a very nice, select and quiet neighborhood....our American neighbours actually cam over introduced themselves, and gave us a cake, and a card with their names (lest we forget them)...the wife became good friends with my mother...I was taken aback because I had never experienced such random act of kindness and we never did again in such way. I am originally from Chile, and being from Santiago neighbours distrust each other usually or ignore each other, except in those old neighborhoods where whole generations have grown up, and everyone knows each other in the neighborhood...I think back in the day there was more social interaction among neighbors... On a trip to rural southern Chile (a small town where my grandfather was born) people were very suspicious of people from the "continent" as they call the people not born on the island) and were peeking at us from the windows, yet as soon as I looked, they would close the drapes, was very funny to see...yet word spread around soon and people were very nice and inviting. I guess what I am trying to say is that it is a phenomenon around the world in decline with some exceptions. In any case, I do not like to be too involved because I am jealous of my privacy, and one time I felt I was "forced to participate" when around halloween a basket of candies was left on my door with a note that I had to make two baskets and put them out like they did to me... luckily at walgreens I found one very cheap and a bunch of nasty candy for $1 dollar. Here where I live now, I befriended the old lady downstairs, and she is a great cook and sometimes she gives me pizza she makes or pasta (yuuummm) which I willingly accept, lol...but she lives in my building. The other neighbors I do not know and they are not eager to meet me, hence I am not eager to meet them...it would be so silly if I went to them to introduce myself...lol.
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