We've had some great neighbors in the past! One strikes me as the best though... This is a great story!

About 11 years ago I was going through a divorce from a very nasty, abusive, psychotic man. My parent's next-door neighbor and her boyfriend were both police officers and very good friends of ours. One day we had some visitors from out of town stop in unexpectedly. No big deal. We were all sitting in the living room visiting when there came a knock at the door, it was the distinctive loud knock of our neighbor the cop. I opened the door and she demanded "Who's here" while looking past me into the house with her hands behind her back. I said, quite confused at her "demand", "Um, Uh, some friends of ours, come on in..." So she smiled, laughed, came in and laid her gun that she had hidden behind her back on the table and stayed to visit. She explained that she saw the strange car and thought something might be wrong.

About 20 minutes later her boyfriend knocked at the door and DID THE EXACT SAME THING! Once we assured him that nothing was wrong, he came on in, laid his gun on the table next to hers and stayed to visit too. Our visitors looked at each other and he said to her, "Do you think we should leave now?" It's a great joke between all of us!

We remembered to let the neighbors know every time we had a strange car in the driveway from then on!

My parents have great neighbors now too, our kids play together, their oldest daughter babysits for us. We invite them to all of our cookouts and parties at my parents house. It's a great neighborhood, all of the neighbors socialize, except just a couple of homes who keep to themselves.

I have nice neighbors in my neighborhood right now. We've only been here a few months, but we really like everyone. And all of the folks in the neighborhood we just moved out of were great!

I think there are lots of great neighbors out there, we just don't talk about them as much as we do the bad ones. Kinda like the squeeky wheel gets the oil.

~P

I've got a whole load of them. I got seriously injured about 4 years ago and was in the hospital for a couple of weeks. When I got home one neighbor came over and offered to do my grocery shopping and take out my trash, anothe mowed my lawn(difficult to do while using a walker) and another walked up through the yard to offer me a four pack of beer (I didnt ask about the other two beers). There are plenty of good neighbors out there, but you must be one to have one.

: ) the folks next door moved in a month after we did, and we are very much the 'new kids' on the block -everyone else has lived there for 30+ years...

we take eachother's trash cans back to the gate when they're empty, we've watered one another's planters during a dry season, and we trade crafty bits back and forth...

we really have nothing in common besides this being our first homes- but I couldn't ask for a better neighbor : )

I've only lived in apartments, and I've never had a truly bad neighbor. I've had ones that were loud from time to time, but they don't qualify as "bad."

I have neighbors upstairs who are friendly, nice. They don't complain when I yell at my kids, and I don't complain when they walk around, or occasionally I hear their TV.

The best ones, I think, are like the folks upstairs: friendly, but not your best friends. Willing to lend you a ladder, but not inviting you over for dinner once a week. Keeping an eye out for stuff that might go wrong, willng to bring up a problem politely if it exists (instead of fuming), but understanding of the idea that other people do exist around them.

I have neighbors on either side of me and above me.. And they are all great.. I haven't had a problem in three years of living here..

Of course I am now management at the complex that I live at.. So I highly doubt if I will ever have a problem...

But the last place I lived at for seven years, I didn't have a problem there either.. I have been very blessed by the sound of things...

All my neighbors are great here minus the crazy guy who moved away...across the street.
knock on wood.

During my college years of renting apts, I always had good neighbors and I hope that I was considered as one, too. We always looked out for each other and respected the hour of the day for appropriate activity. I had my childhood dog living with me and she was very quiet and mannered. When I moved to an apt community when first married, all H-LL broke out with rude neighbors and their kids, plus I was paying a lot more money to live in this area!

Even buying a first house didn't make the bad neighbors go a way. My former next-door neighbor had the city seize his property and men in white fumigation suits and respiratory packs came with dump trucks to clean it out. For years us neighbors had petitions (L&I, SPCA, City Hall, Air Management/Noise Pollution, DHS, Health Department, Police, Townwatch +) to fine/jail/do anything to get this guy to abide by the city laws. Finally when I had enough and moved, the city came in and took action ...it must have been an election year!

My current 2 neighbors to the sides of me are great families...we all keep to ourselves! The best neighbors are the ones you don't see, IMHO. It's funny, the other side of the road from me, they all coffee klatch together and on this single detached side, it's very private...the way we all like it (obviously we pay tooth and nail for it, too).

I think that good neighbors do exist and you're more likely to think so if you do not have to share a wall with them. My mother has great neighbors who help her shovel the driveway, stop by to chat when walking down the street etc. We even used to have annual block parties when our neighborhood consisted of only 100 or so houses. Now the neighborhood has gotten a bit to large to continue that tradition.
I don't think that it takes much to be a good neighbor. A little consideration for others is the main thing