Xiaoniu 小妞

Last week one of our neighbors stopped. I thought he might be coming over to either praise us or complain about the  Christmas lights I just put up. The timing was right. He actually came over to invite us over for drinks. He and the other neighbors get together once in a while and they wanted to invite us over to meet and get to know them. Being neighborly and completely shocked we agreed.

Last night with wine bottle and plate of cheese and crackers in hand we had drinks and talked with them for hours. Just over 4 hours to be correct. We had no idea we would stay over that late, but we did. We were the last ones to leave.  The visit was well worth it.

Besides the two of them the neighbors next to our house and the neighbors next to their house came over. Overall there were at least three generations there. Everybody but us seemed to know each other quite well. Obviously they’ve done this before. Two of the couples were the original owners of their houses from back in ’62. We’ve been there a whopping 8 months.

At least two of the women were talkers. So, there were never any uncomfortable silences. We talked a bit, but mostly listened. We learned about our neighbors, the neighborhood and of course we now know more about the people that lived in the house we bought. It was a real eye-opener all around.

Back in the day the neighborhood was really tight-knit. Everybody was about the same age and they all had lots of kids. They joked that they could fill a single school bus just by making the loop in our street. When we found out that each family had 4, 5 and sometimes 9 kids it was clear that they were not playing with us.

The best part was the stuff we learned about the previous owners of our house. It’s apparent that we don’t have to aim very high to keep the house looking good or to keep the peace in the area. The previous owner:

• Used to leave his porch lights and flood lights on day and night. At least two neighbors said it was so bad that they had to install special blinds in their houses to block out the light at night.
• Used to let the grass grow three feet high and never shoveled his driveway when it snowed.
• Had a fight with one of his kids and through all of her clothes out the bedroom window. It landed mostly on the porch roof where it stayed for weeks.
• Had a 14 daughter that grabbed the keys to her father’s van at 3am and backed it down the driveway into the neighbor’s driveway and right into their car.
• Used to throw dirty clothes in the bathroom (1st floor) until it was full and then got around to washing them. I think they kept the door closed a lot to keep it all in.

The one thing I thought most interesting had to do with the shower in our first floor bathroom. I mentioned that we were doing things around the house, but haven’t gotten around to working on the first floor bathroom. My neighbor said, “I wouldn’t use it.” I believe she was implying it was nasty. Yeah, I’m aware.

I said the problem is that the shower leaks. You turn it on and it rains in the basement. She started to giggle. She said that was broken many years ago. She was shocked it was still unfixed. I wouldn’t be surprised if its been like that for 20 years.

That does confirm my feeling that there are probably other surprises lurking in the house. We just haven’t found them yet. Only time will tell.

All that being said they were all happy with all the updates and ongoing maintenance that we’ve been doing around the place. I think they are just happy we don’t cause trouble and the lawn is always mowed, but like I said we don’t have to aim high to be better than the previous owner.

We’ll probably meet up for drinks again some time. I’m a little embarrassed to have them over our house when I still have many things to do, but they won’t be surprised to see something amiss. They’ve all been in our house on many occasions. So, they will notice all the effort (aka money) that we’ve put into it, but I’d still be upset that some things haven’t changed. We shall see.