OT just QI nonsense

I understand talking to your neighbor perfectly. Once when my DS had just started High School he dialed a wrong number and was on the phone for over an hour. It was always someone who knew you or knew of you or at least knew all of your relatives. You also wave at everyone you meet on the road.

Vikki in WA State

That kitty must be pregnant! . In message , Polly Esther writes

Pineapple and mayo? And I thought I had strange tastes. LOL. Are you sure that kitty ain't preggers???

Like us Vikki and Polly. Here in the Village everyone knows (or knows of) everyone else. Like I always say to DH - you can't go up to the store to pick up bread (never milk cause it's delivered) without running into someone. Never five minutes when an hour of chit chat will do.

And it's always when y'all are wearing your daggiest clothes. Always. Yup

I love it. That is how I grew up. That is funny. My little Chihuahua will eat anything I eat including grapes. Hi all. New to your group.

Hi back - and welcome. Have you a shorter name or nickname that we can use >g

Sorry to be VERY OT, but you all are just the wealth of all knowledge. After completing a modified version of a wall hanging called Easter Blessings (well, all the applique is done), I decided to pick up an old cross stitch pattern I had set down for a few (maybe more than a few) years called Time and Season by Moira Blackburn. Now that I have new glasses, I can see to work on it again. Well....when I went into the basket I had it in, I have only half the pattern!!! I have NO idea where the rest is and I have a nearly half finished project. Nordic Needle sells the pattern, but it is $20 + shipping. Does anyone know of a group similar to Quilters Flea Market that would sell / trade this type of thing? With vet bills this month, plus the grandbaby's birthday, my anniversary, etc. I just wanted to find a less expensive way to finish it. As it is, it is back in the basket.

Thanks for ANY suggestions, Paulette in WV where the winds have stopped, it is only lightly raining and we are supposted to have a GREAT Weather Weekend

Hi Polly,

Here in farm country of central NY, it's very much the same. We have a little store in town that everyone goes to and even folks who don't know you will comment on the weather or a pretty scarf.

-Irene

We are feeding adult son's puppy the dry Purina Puppy Chow, and table scraps. Well, they are not scraps since I fix his plate first so everything can be cooling! I don't have grandchildren, so I count Recess as a grandpuppy. As in Recess peanut butter cups. Here in Florida we prefer to feed the gators some of the aggravating neighbors! Barbara in FL

Polly, Pretty much the same here in Princeton, NJ metro area (if this can really be described as a 'metro' area). Our tiny little town (1 mi. square) is very much the same. Can't walk into the grocery (or any other) store in town without running into at least a dozen people you know and must have a chat with. And I agree with whomever said you always have on the rattiest clothes you own! Now, I've only lived here for the last 16-17 years so I'm a new-comer to this neighborhood. DH, however, has lived in the same town his entire life. I don't think there's a place in the state that we've been to that we haven't run into someone he either grew up with, were his parents friends, etc. So much so that while on our honeymoon at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta we had a knock on the hotel room door from a rather elderly gentleman that had been in the service with my FIL! Not sure if that makes the family famous or infamous!

Kim in NJ

Here in the Midwest there is a phrase called "Midwest Nice" and it does, indeed apply. That is one of the things that appeals to me about living here. There are plenty of negatives, as there are everywhere, but when you live in a small town which only has one phone prefix and everybody just uses 4 digits when they give out their phone number, you do truly know you are living in a small town. Quite a change of pace from 45 years of living in the San Francisco Bay Area.

John

My "new" home is like that in Oz - four (or sometimes five if you are from a "bit out of town") digit phone numbers lol.

I have only been here for about 5 1/2years and they told me from day1 that even if I lived here for another 50 I would never be a "local" . . . . but then they smile and say that after 20 years you can say you are "from" Ararat rofl

When I was having the house built, my builder was most concerned that after such an "adventurous" life in the Air Force and being a "city-ite" I might make this huge commitment to a home in an area I would not be happy in. He warned me that small towns can be a hard adjustment for newcomers. But having moved 2 dozen times I have found that most places have their good and bad sides, and if you approach a new place and new people prepared to like them, you probably will.

He (the builder who has lived in town all his life and his family back three generations) now calls in to see me to catch up on town news. I entered a quilt in a local quilt show when I arrived just as a way to meet people, and I now have a constant steam of sewers through my house at least 5 days a week. It doesn't matter that I don't get out much, they come to me and keep me up with ALL the news. That wouldn't happen so easily in a big city. (Although my sit'n'sew group from the city thinks I can't like the people out here as much as I liked them because I don't cook fresh muffins for quilting visitors here. I haven't disillusioned them by explaining that I would be baking EVERY day out here instead of once a week in town rofl)

I guess I am kind of, sort of city folk Polly. I grew up with a mom that had 'never met a stranger'. She was the talkingest (and listeningest) woman around. I guess I sort of learned to be chatty watching an expert. Now ds in his new work has been told he has 'the gift of gab'. He isn't so chatty as mom and me but knows how to be when needed. I consider it a fine trait.

On the subject of dog chow I asked the vet on Tuesday when we saw her. She is feeding her pooches Eukanuba dry food. Whoever said that cat liking pineapple and mayo was pregnant is probably right. That is sure a funny picture.

Taria

Polly Esther wrote:

I think that's another one of Murphy's Laws! And the person you run into has just come from some meeting and she's dressed to the hilt!

I have a funny story to tell about talking to strangers. In February DH and I were at the U of I basketball game and there were two fellows sitting next to us in seats that are usually empty...the season ticket holder rarely comes. The halftime entertainment was the twirler from the marching band doing her last exhibition before graduating after 5 years of performing. I had made a few comments to my DH and some friends who sit behind us and I noticed the young man sitting next to me nodding in agreement and he even added some info. So I asked him how he knew her, etc. He said he'd been in marching band with her and they were friends. I then had to add that our DD had been in marching band with her too. In a matter of a minute or two, we discovered he knew DD, he asked where she was living now (nearby!) if she was still dating M...(no!), did we think it would be ok if he called her, (yes,.... once out of college, the social life of a small town teacher tends to be a little slow) and could he have her phone number. Before the game was over the two of them were sending text messages on their phones, had a date for that night and have been a hot item ever since! Both have thanked me several times for talking to a stranger!!! It wasn't until later that I had the thought that I should have checked with her before giving him her phone number....what if he had been that guy in band you never wanted to see again?? But I had a feeling I'd seen him before....yup, in some of her band trip pictures....hugging. Ahhhhhhh, young love!

Sounds like many of you live in very friendly places. Here in Boca Raton, FL, people don't talk to neighbors much. After 7 years I am now on waving status with 4 of my neighbors and only 1 kknow well enough to borrow a cup of sugar. I work a day or two a month for her husband doing bookkeeping. I am so chatter starved, I guess that is why I like all you ladies. I have a place to go to share my life.

When I first moved interstate I was sharing a house with two work mates, one of whom owned the house we were sharing. I introduced him to his next door neighbour of eight years. I met the neighbour when I said "Hello" while watering the garden one evening. His immediate response - "You're not from here are you?" Apparently it was almost unheard of to just chat to your neighbours.

The two of them finished up doing quite a lot of business together lol.

OTOH - My best friend made a rare visit to me interstate once and met many of my neighbours in the course of her stay. She used to ask after them whenever we chatted by phone. On a visit to her I commented that John was having trouble adjusting to his crutches since he broke his leg, and she said "John who?" - her next door neighbour! She still knows some of my neighbours better then she knows her own, even from over 200km.

Don't give up on the neighbours! They may yet realise what they are missing by not knowing you.

Oh what a terrific 'happenstance'! Great story. . In message , KJ writes