Neghboors?

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Just curious, what were your experiences with neghboors growing up? Often I find myself thinking about this aspect, probably the worst part of being socially inept is dealing with those living around while at the same time trying to establish friendships with the other kids your age in the area. All the adults in my neghboorhood thought I was weird, perhapse even a bad kid or influence. Growing up things got worse cause even your peers or friends, those you may have known most of your life see how akward you are, and things keep declining from their. Anyways, I found refuge in the local woods, where those kids in high school would be driving around going to parties or hangin out without me since I was being ditched. I got a nice feeling from the isolation, the long walks during all 4 seasons were nice to experience and it was such a big place, a fine escape and here is where I was happy and I thought about this when even today, almost a decade later after I first really discovered these woods by myself I still go hiking in.

What was life like for you growing up in your neghboorhood? Your friends? Their parents? Stuff you enjoyed to do together? Stuff you did alone? Do you have mostly good memories or bad from this time?

My neighborhood in the '60's was a mystical magical place. All good strange things and experiences to revel in. Unfornuately it didn't last long. My immediate large family cruelly taunted and teased me throughout my young life. I didn't know why they hated me it was just a weird sort of natural thing that my family hated me. Everything sort of went pear shaped and down hill after the age of 11 or so. It's strange but I always had a best friend(different friend through the years) as a young child, but the friend was always "gimpy" in some aspect. Either actually gimpy or metaphorically. One friend was a "Mommas's boy" who peed his pants in school. One friend who was in some kind of car accident as a young boy and had one leg shorter than the other, wore the Frankenstein shoe on that leg. I mean , they were all gimpy, maybe it was some sort of unconscience reflection/attraction on my unknown aspiness at that time. I really never noticed their difference. I'm sure others did. If it weren't for my sucky family at the time it probably would of been alright as a kid. I must say, they've made up for their horribleness since.

I took refuge in the woods too. That was during high school. When I was younger, I lived in an urban neighborhood. There were lots of kids. We all played together, somewhat violently. We weren't exactly friends, we were just passing the time. I didn't go to school with those kids. I had no friends at school. My family was oppressive. I'm glad I had the woods, and music.

The kids in my neighborhood hated me and my siblings. There were several of us on the spectrum, growing up, and it showed. It got us teased, tormented, and assaulted. To this day, when I see a group of kids standing on a corner, I will go out of my way to avoid them, even though I'm all grown up.

I would take refuge in the woods sometimes as well. When I was smaller, I also liked to collect waterbugs as well.

I lived in a quiet suburban area, growing up, and didn't really see much of the neighbours. However, the woods-refuge really resonates with me, though, because from the age of 11 until I went to university, I would walk my neighbour's dogs in the woods for hours every weekend.

I still do get out into the woods with my dog as often as I can. The woods, wherever they are, feel like home for some reason.

I moved around a lot when I was very young, didn't have any real friends until we settled into this house when I was seven. All the kids in the neighborhood were boys, even though we were different ages we got along pretty well. A couple would go off when they thought I was weird, but they weren't missed.

By their parents & other neighbors I was the highly intelligent 'old soul' as they would call me, more then strange. I was the trusted neighborhood pet sitter at the age of seven, not many kids could look after their own goldfish at that age, so I did stand out. I was always trusted to keep the other kids out of trouble. The parents looked at me like a mini adult I guess. The good influence. That fact didn't bother the other kids as they were often given permission to stay out later, go off the street & other things they wouldn't normally be able to do if I wasn't out playing.

When neighboring bully kids would come & try to pick fights with us I was always the one to come up with good one-liners to give my chums to shout back at them. Many a bully was turned away embarrassed simply because they ran out of catchy things to yell at us. One came back with a knife & his two brothers, I was the one to report the kids to their parents.

It's sad & strange at the same time. My world here stays the same, stands the change of time. All of my friends grew up, experienced teen-hood, college, dating & now married with kids. Me, I'm still pretty much the same old me, just a little older & slightly wiser.

I'm still friends with some of them, one especially who just moved back into his parents house with his pregnant wife. They just sold their condo & are house hunting in the area. It's bitter sweet to have a friend back in 'real life' all of my other 'good' friends have been online past years. When he & I talk it's as if he never moved away. He's always been a gentle guy, excepting of who I am. He's never looked down on me, even though I missed every major event in his life because I couldn't leave my house for a good many years. He once dropped everything to come with me to see David Duchovny on Jay Leno, he'd just been in a motorcycle accident too. Hobbled in on crutches. He knew it was a rare moment out of the house for myself & took a lot of guts to do it. I'm lucky & feel honored to have a friend like him. I've never seen his double, I doubt there are many people out there like him.

My experiences at school mirror more of all of your experiences. I hated school. The kids... omg they were awful!! ! At least home life was easier living, looking at all of your stories I'm grateful for that even more.

um...lets see.. from 1-6, I lived in a spooky 1900's house that seemsd like it was haunted. The family who lived next door to my practiced Santaria and they alos seemed to believe the house was haunted. It was a big extended family..the older sons keps going to jail for burgalry and even murder...among the kids who were closer to my age...there was a girl named Rosanna..and I always called her Rosanna Rosannadanna because it was back when she was on SNL, and i wa a regular watcher..my folks would make me up for it...

Then there were the evil twins....Roy and Renee one was fair and the other was dark..they always wore striped shirts....they were extremely cruel and nasty towards me....the hit me in the face with a plank of wood..they squirted chemicals in my eyes and then laughed while I screamed in pain...etc...Their slightly older brother was into cross dressing and torturing and killing small animals (I am not making this up)...he would raise chickens that he would sometimes sacrifice in our garage...once, my mom found a whole litter of dead kittens that looked like they had been tortured sorry to be graphic,,,um on my other side there was a couple that was half German and half Japanese and they had a beautiful daughter who would babysit me...till they moved away.
Down the street on that side there was a kid my age and his older brother. Their dad would watch tv with headphones on..i guess there was a station that would dub eveything into Spanish. The older brother was either in Jr High or high school and he sorta put me in a cardboard box and did nasty things to me..sorta like playing Doctor. There were some females who lived on that side who liked to make fun of me.
There was a kid across the street named BB who my parents did not like me playing with for some reason. We mostly drew in chalk on his driveway..he was actually the most benign of my neighbor/friends....
um...we moved away from there when I was 6
We moved away from there when i was 6

Last edited by poopylungstuffing on 20 Oct 2007, 7:10 am, edited 1 time in total.

I do too. I also find myself avoiding adults who remind me of the "cool kids" from school who tended to be the most cruel to me.

I hid in the woods as well, except I was almost never on the ground. I would take a book, climb a tree, and sit up in the branches and read or sing.

My neighbors were terrible. I lived in a very affluent neighborhood where a lack of social graces was considered trashy. My parents were so embarrassed of me and were downright cruel sometimes in trying to "socialize" me. Not being able to "perform" at galas was a constant source of embarrassment for my family, particularly my mother who took it personally. I was blamed by the neighbors for everything their kids did wrong. If someone broke a window, they blamed me, even if I wasn't around. In those situations, I will say my mother came to my defense.

There was one place, one town, where I fit in and I really wonder about this. Is it possible for, in a real small town where everyone is related, for the most part, for the entire town to be on the spectrum to some degree? Believe this or not, for 2 years of my life in middle school, I not only wasn't tormented, but was popular. All the traits most people rejected, the people there loved about me because they were that way too. Sure, there were some mean ones, always is, but I was a cheerleader, on the volleyball team, on the basketball team, and had tons of friends who were all socially awkward and didn't think anything of analyzing everything because they did it too! I wish more than anything in this world I could go back there....instead I'm stuck with a bunch of ignorant rednecks who, regardless of how you explain it, are of the attitude that, if you are different, you deserve to be mistreated. How did I ever wind up here?

EvilKimEvil wrote

[quote="EvilKimEvil"]I took refuge in the woods too.

I still do! I love/d getting "lost" and the feeling that I am discovering something entirely new. Seeking out naturally magical places is very important.

Maybe this needs another "what do you do in the woods" thread? Answers could be interesting :-/

Peace

Tog

In the woods right now on the riverbank, writing on a cellfone. Horizon to horizon blue sky, warm autumn sunshine, dogs sleeping on the roof of the boat. Crows crawing overhead. There's a rabbit looking at me, that'll end up in the pot if the dogs see him...Wish you all could be here to share it...

poopylungstuffing, did life improve when you moved? Though I can hardly think of a worse neighborhood, what a tough bunch of things to experience, goodness.

That was just my some of my neighbors...I made no mention of my family life or the people my parents would invite to live with us....a whole other can of worms...

oh yeah...and our house kept getting broken into my the older boy neighbors...there was not much for them to steal, but one time they apparently came though the window of the room where I was sleeping,

From 6 to 8 we lived on another street in the same neighborhood...but far enough away to go to a different school.

My acrooss the street neighbors consisted of the Izaguere family, a large extended Mexican family living in a one-bedroom duplex. I was friends with the girl who was my age, Maria Christina.....and there were 3 other kids besides....all boys...the parents and grandparents spoke no english, but they often brought over food.

In the duplex next to them was a non-english speaking ElSalvadoran single dad with 2 daughters..one my age..one a toddler..the girl's name was Deborah...the dad religiously watched Charlie's Angels..and always had this way of whistling the theme song....
The toddler was very big boned and sturdy for her age. Sometimes there would be big bingo games at his house that I would be privy to.

In the house behind them was the Cortez family. The dad was Jesse...the kids were Latte and Gracie..there was also a young son and an infant. The dad was a serious alcoholic and obsessed with Elvis...claiming to somehow be his dead twin who I guess was named Jesse..also.
The mom was fair skinned...possibly half-hispanic or native american..and always seemed cranky or depressed...Latte and gracie were always playing tricks and took advantage of my niavete and ablilty to fall for anything they would toss my way. Jesse would sometimes send us to the corner store to buy him beer..the same way that in those days my mom would send me out for her cigarettes.

A little down the way was a hispanic girl named Rachel. She lived in a bigger, nicer duplex and her aunt, who was kinda a hippie shared the building. Her dad liked to stand in the doorway expose himself to us while we tried to watch television...we ignored him, but covered our eyes and she cried.

Behind us lived a big redneck family form Oklahoma...they had a farm..more-or-less with pidgeons and ducks and rabbits and whatnots...and a viscious lab named Blackjack.

They dragged me to church because it was their christian duty..but could harldy tolerate me...

there were also a buncha old people and whatnot and some other kids....

Yes, I too lived in an affluent neghboorhood most of my life as well. While Growing up I did to stuff with the other kids around the neghboorhood, and back then the 'circle' was divided up amoungst groups of kids living in those areas, strange?? We built forts, go carts (and raced um) checked out houses being built (as it was a fairly new development at the time) and play sports. We had a good time exploring our suroundings and they were my friends until we were grown up pretty much, now I dont talk to them.