I just found out what my neighbor does.

Who are your neighbors?  Do you know?  I live in a condominium complex with only 35 units.  Been here since 1983.
 
We're not a real sociable bunch and I usually find out after the fact who the people who live here with me are.
 
Didn't know until after he died that the man in the end unit with the gold Rolls Royce was one of the Original Platters.   I would have loved to have talked to him.  All I ever did was wave or say hello in passing.  Don't know what I would have said, but I bet he would have been really interesting.
 
The little snobby blond that lived here was a one time teen actress.
Boring!
 
Now Jean-Francois...  What a nice man with a cute family.  I've watched his older son grow up... he must be three or four.  The twins who are probably one are adorable and I do talk to his wife.
 
They're leaving!  I can't believe I didn't know what he did for a living.  I never asked which is my fault.  I would have loved to have visited him at his job, not that it was a possibility.  Actually I would just like to one time go to the place where he worked.
 
Jean-Francois is executive pastry chef at the Polo Lounge in the Beverly Hilton Hotel.
 
I'm losing that entire family because he just accepted a job at the Greenbrier in West Virginia.   I can't believe I didn't know this!
 
So, you are my Roadfood family.  I know what a few of you do.
 
We've chatted with each other for years....
 
What do you do?
 
I used to own a barbecue (grill) and fireplace store. I luckily sold it right when the economy took a dive.  I unluckily lost my job from the person I sold it to three years after the sale.  Business was awful!
 
I am now retired unless I find a job.
 
You?

I live in a nice neighborhood of single family homes and know about 6 of my immediate neighbors .When we first moved into the neighborhood about 95% of the homes were owner occupied. Since the economic downturn, many home owners that moved haven't been unable to sell their homes and so they rent them. The neighborhood quality of life has gone downhill with renters who don't give a damn about the property. 
Spent over 40 years in management positions. As far as jobs go, I've had 2 major careers. First in retailing. I started with Sears while going to college. Upon graduation, I taught in High School for a year and worked part-time at Sears. Loved teaching but got tired of living on hot dogs and Kool-Aid. Joined Sears management program and progressed rapidly thru the chairs with them during the high growth period of development of regional malls, 1964-1979. Left Sears after 15 years as a National Sales Manager. Stayed in Retail Management with Truckstops of America, President of a speciality retail chain, then bought my own Smoked Meat Business. Built it up and sold it. Walked into a Management Recruiters office to see if they could help me find a job and wound up working for them. Spent 24 years in recruiting. After that, developed my own consulting business working with small businesses teaching them how to spell P & L and developing every aspect of their business. I'm 71 years old and still working and will do so until they put me in the box or more specifically have my cremains put into a pyrotechnic device and shot off over the Grand Canyon. I'm going out with a bang!
It's illegal to do that in a National Park but I've worked out a plan to do it. Don't tell anybody. Hope my son doesn't get arrested for doing it!  
Want to have your Ass shot off somewhere? Here's one source- http://www.angels-flight.net/ Google for others!

I know what my neighbor does.He blows leaves.Every day,doesnt matter if there is only 2 leaves in his yard he is out there with that damn backpack blower and his earprotectors blowing those two leaves around.Last week he was out there in a 50 mph wind blowing the leaves,with a weird smile on his face.He will be out there again today.The poor leaves dont stand a chance.
 

Most of my neighbors are friendly, but we don't have neighborhood get-togethers.  One of my next door neighbors is a husband/wife who are about the same age as my sons.  They have four respectful children.  He's a supervisor at a local mfg plant.  She works in an office.  The neighbor on the other side is a divorcee with two children.  We're lucky if she cuts her grass twice a month.   The guy across the street owns an insurance agency, and even though we are on a first-name basis and occasionally have conversations, he has never tried to sell me any insurance.
 
I call myself "retired", although I guess technically I'm not.  A few years ago, I gave my business away to an Amish friend.  He makes, markets and distributes a proprietary item I developed fifteen years ago.  He pays me a"license fee" for every sale he makes.  Every day, he sends me a copy of every invoice he writes to his customer.  At the end of the week, I invoice him for the license fees he owes me for those sales.  I am able to graph his sales on a daily basis, if I wish, to be sure that he continues to properly maintain the business.  He consults with me on a regular basis for the purpose of discussing sales, marketing and merchandising ideas. I compare monthly sales with YTD sales, three-month, six-month, 12-month, and 24-month averages.  All of this is automatically generated when the invoice is created.
 
On average, I spend less than an hour per week on the paperwork.  Per our Memorandum of Understanding Agreement, I can take the business back from him if he fails to meet expected sales levels.  We do not have a written contract per se, but basically operate on a handshake agreement.  During this economic downturn, the sales haven't increased much, but they haven't declined much either.  My friend nets about $20,000 per month.  That's not bad for a business that required no investment on his part. 
 
So, I guess technically I'm not retired, but I wake up when I want, turn my computer on when I want, travel when I want, and most importantly, when it comes to business, I can describe my activities as pretty passive.  Could I make more if I hadn't given the business away?  Yeah, but then I'd have to work for a living.

I'm the IT manager for a well known manufacturer of woodworking equipment (well known if you're a woodworker, I should say). My prior work experience included musician, auto maintenance, hippie store manager (I'm the least hippie-ish of almost anyone I know), and funeral director.
I have no idea what any of my neighbors do, and to be honest I'm not really that interested. I live in an apartment complex where most of the people are unapproachable and seemingly miserable.

I make people fat and happy!
I know but don't socalize with my neighbors, I only have a few as I live on a mountain, not high, but a mountain nonetheless. One neighbor dresses up like The Blessed Mother, claims she was sent here by her, the purpose of which remains a mystery.   Another is a builder who owns a Catholic bookstore in Emmitsburg, few people on earth more boring, except the Engineer and his wife who live at the end of our lane. The house on our right at the end of our lane is vacant as it's been foreclosed, nice place though!
Growing up we knew everyone on our street and most of the people on the next street, they included the owner of the Washington Star, the head of National Geographic, a Rabbi, a Washington Post Reporter, the owner of a chain of upscale Women's clothing, David Brinkley, B.Francis Saul's family, he of the Forbes 400 fame, some guy who sang Opra all day long, loudly, we'd make fun of him, he'd yell nasty things at us...life was good!
Edited at 5:00, The Montralls, mark Montrall is one of the heads of our Nuclear Sub program currently,  Rabbi Richman, they owned Welsh Corgies that barked 24/7, Rose Robinson Cowan and family, she of the clothing stores, the Hoffmanns, owned the Evening Star, the Hollands of Washington Post, the Myers, The Sauls, Windsor Booth and clan, Mr. Stutz, he laughed like a maniac at everything but wouldn't let you in his yard, the O'Briens, Dr. O'Brien was an ENT Doc, the McKennas, he owned Radio Stations all over. the Sinsarians, guess what they did? Persian Rugs! The Ables, they owned the Baltimore Sun, The English's, Mrs. English was a terrible Alcholic and tragically lost a baby girl because she didn't think to call an ambulance when the child started choking, the Walshes, Mrs Walsh was the first female to own a seat on the NYSE, Mr. Walsh big Real Estate guy, The Swagarts, again Real Estate in DC, Slumlord actually, The Lavelles, Air Force General, eventually 4 star, lost a star as he supposedly bombed North Vietnam
against Nixon's orders, since recently vindicated by the tapes, but Kissinger is blocking his pardon, The Buchannons, you all know Pat, many more! 

Hubert Humphrey's widow, Muriel, was once my neighbor. I doubt Hubert himself was because he died after we bought our property but before we built our house and I don't know if he actually ever lived in his house on Lake Minnetonka.

I know most of my neighbors because when I moved here 12 years ago, most of them came and introduced themselves. We were the first "new" people on the block in about 15 years. Most of the houses are original owners and 3 are 2nd generation, children of the original owners. The previous owner of my house was 90 and moved in with her son. My immediate neighbor died 2 years ago at 93. When the new owner moved in, we went and introduced ourselves to him but he has gone out of his way to ignore us and everyone else since. He owns a business, the neighbor across the street owns a business that we frequent, I won't do business with the snotty neighbor.

I only have three neighbours, and I know two of them. The one across the street has been there since god was a boy...she never worked, and since her husband died their youngest son lives with her. He's a maintenance guy at one of the hotels downtown. Next door is a new family. He drives a long-haul truck, and has a 16-year-old son who I know because he's friends with my 16-year-old niece. His sister stays with the kid when he's on the road. They bought the house from my brother-in-law's brother, who bought it from my grandparents. It's that kind of neighbourhood in that kind of town...and I come from one of the first families to settle here.
 
Me, I'm a professional stagehand. Started out in community theatre right out of high school, and started working for my union local in January of 1996. Joined in March of 1998, and just now am running for my fourth three-year term as recording secretary. My primary training is in lighting, wardrobe, and matrix (which means I run the four-sided LED board in the scoreboard at our arena as well as the 360 LED ribbon board around the bowl), but I can hold my own in audio, carpentry, and props. My local covers all of west Michigan, which amounts to about ten theatres, four arenas, two convention centers, and a ton of other venues (churches, in-house theatres at corporations, hotels, research institutes, museums, etc.). We do corporate events, Presidential appearances (as well as candidates), ballet, opera, symphonies, touring Broadway shows, concerts, and sporting events.

See?  This is interesting!
 
Chewey said something that is very true in my life.  I grew up in a house on a street in the '50s and '60s where there were a lot of kids my age and my brother's age. 
 
That was because it was a new housing contract where newly married people were buying their first homes.  Everyone was sort of the same age. 
 
That doesn't happen much anymore around here because of the price of homes. 
 
Maybe growing up in Los Angeles made it different as well.  I am a city girl! 
 
I still talk to my childhood neighbors and friends.  Facebook made that small circle a little bit larger.
 
 

About the knowing everybody thing...I'm currently living in my childhood home (moved back about ten years ago), and there are the same four houses on our street there always were. It wasn't until they built the housing development around us my senior year in high school that I didn't know absolutely everybody. Now, it's all grown up, and we're an official suburb of the "big" city rather than a small village set way out in the boonies. But I still know probably 60% of the people in our real neighbourhood nestled among the apartments and condos. Most of them are now in their 80's, and while a few of the kids have since bought their houses, as they pass away we get new people in. The developments have made all of us very cautious about new people, unfortunately...some very special folks live there, and we'd really rather not have anything to do with them.

My mother has the BEST neighbors on the planet.  Since my father passed away, they have been mowing our lawn, trimming the hedges, taking care of the trees, doing grocery shopping for my mom, bringing the mail up, etc.  They are the best!  I thank God for them every day.
Ray is an HVAC guy, so in addition to the above, he also takes care of our AC and heating needs.

My next door neighbor with whom I share a porch owes me.
He put up spider webs and plastic spiders. 
 
I wasn't expecting them and they got me good.  I really jumped.
 
Don't know how I forgot about my newest neighbor...
 
My next door neighbor who shares walls with me on the other side is this person:
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Q1YMgC4Q-s&feature=related
 
The first time he said hello to me I nearly melted.  What a voice!  His speaking voice is as wonderful as his singing voice.  I am privileged because he practices all day long.
 
He moved in thinking he was going to buy the condo.  He didn't know that the person who he is renting from was in foreclosure.  The bank just bought it and put a notice to vacate on the front door.  I hope he buys it from the bank.
 
I would love for my neighbors to cut my grass if I had grass which I would also love.  I'd be lucky if they took in my trash if I forgot.  Instead I get a scathing recording if I'm not home or forgot.
 
A big percentage of my neighbors are doctors and lawyers.  Then there's me.

I aspire to be what my neighbor is.....retired.
 
My wife and I both work for one of the major telecommunications companies. We relocated to Georgia from New Jersey during the 90's when locations were being closed and jobs moved around.
 
We moved into our new neighborhood five years ago when new homes were being built in the subdivision. There seems to be quite of few of us from New Jersey on my street. My next door neighbor is from Plainfield and Im from the Branchburg/Somerville area. He and I talk about the foods we miss, especially the lack of good pizza or hot dog place
 

mar52


Chewey said something that is very true in my life.  I grew up in a house on a street in the '50s and '60s where there were a lot of kids my age and my brother's age. 

That was because it was a new housing contract where newly married people were buying their first homes.  Everyone was sort of the same age. 

My parents moved into a fairly new subdivision in 1968 and at the time there were a number of other families in the same general age range for both adults and children, but now there might be only 3 families from that era left.  Their immediate neighbors on 1 side are the 2nd owners of that house (moved in around 1973-74 or so) and a little ways down the street might be the only other "1 owner" house left.
 
Brad

I know the names of the people who live across the road, and I've spoken with the woman who lives next to me. I met the retired guy who lives in the first house on my road when he was giving out election things several years ago -- but that's it. Of course, I've lived here just 39 years.
 
EDIT: Oh, yeah, in addition to his name I also know that the guy who lives across the road pilots jet aircraft for Wendy's.

felix4067


Me, I'm a professional stagehand. Started out in community theatre right out of high school, and started working for my union local in January of 1996. Joined in March of 1998, and just now am running for my fourth three-year term as recording secretary. My primary training is in lighting, wardrobe, and matrix (which means I run the four-sided LED board in the scoreboard at our arena as well as the 360 LED ribbon board around the bowl), but I can hold my own in audio, carpentry, and props. My local covers all of west Michigan, which amounts to about ten theatres, four arenas, two convention centers, and a ton of other venues (churches, in-house theatres at corporations, hotels, research institutes, museums, etc.). We do corporate events, Presidential appearances (as well as candidates), ballet, opera, symphonies, touring Broadway shows, concerts, and sporting events.

 
Do you work at the Acorn Theater in Three Oaks ever? I am playing a show with the Paula Nelson Band there on the 2nd of December.

I lived in Mequon, Wi for awhile-( I rented the upper half of an old farmhouse) My neighbor had beautiful horses, Mastiff dogs whom he loved, and a wonderful personality. His name is Gerald Boyle, and he represented Jeffrey Dahmer. He became my friend, has followed me around to my cooking in my deli's( I caterd his daughters "after "wedding party,) and is a great guy.

We lived in our last home in SoCal (High Desert) for 11 years. I taught in the same community. I knew the first names of the neighbors, and their occupations, but little else. We swapped fruit harvests with two of them who also had fruit trees growing. Very little personal contact or interaction.
  In 2000 we relocated to Indiana where the houses are much farther apart, but the neighbors seem much 'closer'. We know our neighbors on three-sides well, the fourth side is open woods for a mile or so. One of the three is not our favorite person, only because she seems to be be a 'taker' rather than a 'neighbor'. The other two couples are great, we swap foods a lot, and exchanges services and assistance often.  When Janet shot her deer a couple of weeks ago, one of the neighbors did the dressing and butchering for us, in exchaange for a portion of the venison. I bought a large snowblower a year ago, with the understanding that the neighbor guys will use it for their driveways and do mine when they take it out. They will help complete my smokehouse and then have access to it. The wives in this arrangement are sociable, but not as much as the guys, but it is quite different from the isolation of the folks in California.

badart

felix4067


Me, I'm a professional stagehand. Started out in community theatre right out of high school, and started working for my union local in January of 1996. Joined in March of 1998, and just now am running for my fourth three-year term as recording secretary. My primary training is in lighting, wardrobe, and matrix (which means I run the four-sided LED board in the scoreboard at our arena as well as the 360 LED ribbon board around the bowl), but I can hold my own in audio, carpentry, and props. My local covers all of west Michigan, which amounts to about ten theatres, four arenas, two convention centers, and a ton of other venues (churches, in-house theatres at corporations, hotels, research institutes, museums, etc.). We do corporate events, Presidential appearances (as well as candidates), ballet, opera, symphonies, touring Broadway shows, concerts, and sporting events.

Do you work at the Acorn Theater in Three Oaks ever? I am playing a show with the Paula Nelson Band there on the 2nd of December.

Unfortunately, no. The extreme southern part of west Michigan is in one of the Indiana locals' jurisdiction (187 out of South Bend, I believe). The closest we come to there is Benton Harbor.

You might find your neighbors here: www.virtualglobetrotting.com On the left side of the page you can click states>cities. Very fun website! 

I have been in this apartment for 2.5 years. My first neighbor was a Unitarian Priest of indeterminate sexual orientation. My second neighbor and his girlfriend sold drugs. My third neighbor worked as a bartender and /or bus boy who would bring home boyfriends and entertain them and us all night...my new neighbors are quite a nice couple...oh and this is a two flat...its been a busy couple of years..

The posts remind me of a Tom Waits song, "What's He Building In There?"

I have a neighbor that works as a server at Hooters. She is a widow with two kids. She used to be a dancer at a gentlemans club and made really good money until the state government passed a whole bunch of new regulations in order to make the business unprofitable. She said the club that she worked at never had an issue with the police before the rules were changed and is a little bitter that her earnings dropped by over 70% when the new rules went into effect. It finally got to the point that she can make more as a server at Hooters.

CNW


I have a neighbor that works as a server at Hooters. She is a widow with two kids. She used to be a dancer at a gentlemans club and made really good money until the state government passed a whole bunch of new regulations in order to make the business unprofitable. She said the club that she worked at never had an issue with the police before the rules were changed and is a little bitter that her earnings dropped by over 70% when the new rules went into effect. It finally got to the point that she can make more as a server at Hooters.

Leave it to the Government to screw up a good deal!