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It was one of those sweltering summer nights, windows flung open and the curtains barely touched by a breeze. The homes on the street of our little town are close so you can hardly "not know" your neighbors and sometimes you get to know them more than you would have ever imagined. Pixie, Ed and their children lived across the street from us, maybe a kid's stone … Read more »
I grew up in Maryland. Let’s say 1990. A cute Pakistani guy and his New Yorker wife lived across the street. T came to America in his 20s with nothing, but got a job pumping gas. When the station owner died, T was surprised to find that he had inherited the whole shebang.
T’s basement had a dance floor with flashing lights and a disco ball, and he liked … Read more »
I was two, my mother tells me, when she got a chain lock on her front door because of our next door neighbor. Or rather, because of our next door neighbor's mistake. My mother saw the vaccuum cleaner salesman making his way down our quiet suburban street, and knew in advance she wouldn't let him in, not because she didn't need a vaccuum cleaner, but because door-to-door salesmen were … Read more »
I was 6. An old man lived next door. He had an isolated backyard filled with plants and ivy; I always played there.
It was my birthday, my seventh. He gave me a present wrapped in star covered paper. There was a bear inside. I hugged it, and wasps flew out and stung me.
I was 6. An old man lived next door. He had an isolated backyard filled with plants and ivy; I always played there. I shudder when I think about it now.
It was my birthday, my seventh. He gave me a present wrapped in star covered paper. I ran home to show it to mommy. I tore open the papr, and there was a bear inside. I hugged it, and wasps … Read more »
Remember when you were a kid and there was a house in your neighborhood that you avoided at all cost? It was the creepy house that never had porch lights for trick or treaters. It was the dark abyss that swallowed the baseballs that were accidentally hit in its direction. In my neighborhood, it was the house where the witch lived -- and it was right next door. … Read more »
From the kitchen window I hear voices coming from the neighbors’ back yard. Through the gaps in the fence I see two men, heads bent, looking down at a huge snapping turtle moving through the grass. It hunkers down when the older man bends over and begins to wack its head with a small hammer. Wack. Wack, wack, wack– now the sickening sound of metal … Read more »
Last year when a family moved in next door, I wanted to give them a welcoming gift, sort of a house warming present. So I went out and bought a bread basket and went to my favorite bakery and got a French baguette. With a feeling of brotherly love and in anticipation of meeting my new neighbors, I rushed over to meet the new people on the block. … Read more »
We lived next door to a couple and their teen kids. For their anniversary, husband gave wife a negligee shop. Sarah had the body of young twenties, the face of fifties. Great couple. The husband once ran out with a shotgun when we came home to find someone had broken in and was still there. I used to skip school with friends to go check out Sarah's store, dragging boys … Read more »
I was sitting out side with several of my girlfriends watching my daughters play in the yard when my male neighbor, who wears a mullet, you know, business in the front and party in the back hair cut, short, cut off jean shorts and no shirt comes out side. He is talking on the telephone and walks to the mailbox. He appears to be having a very interesting … Read more »
I was nine, when my dad came home one night with the keys to a trailer on six acres of land. It was a good 30 minutes on out skirts of Belfair, nothing but woods and water for miles. We didn't even have electricity. The whole trailer ran on a generator in the back yard. The only thing within miles was the neighbor on the other side of the lake. … Read more »
Living in a students residence. Got the room right next to his. Falled in love immediately. Heard you having sex in the room above mine. Still with the crush. Finally broke up with her. You started to say how much I smelled well, I much I looked good with glasses. Even went to your house and slept there. I knew it was my chance, but I was too afraid to … Read more »
Wow...I never thought that there'd be a forum for me to vent about my real-life neighbor.
My sweaty and hirsute, next door neighbor lives in a ramshackle, falling-down house. I hear that only one room of his abode is habitable. Every night, he comes home from work, carrying a 12-pack of Keystone Ice beer and a styrofoam container of fried take-out food and he sits on his porch - which faces … Read more »
My neighbor is convinced that my dogs poop in her yard. She's yelled at me countless times about picking up feces in her yard that is obviously not canine. My dogs never leave my yard without me and never without a leash. They are large and I understand they may look intimidating to non-dog lovers. The latest incident happened at 5 a.m. I was returning home from my morning walk … Read more »
We have all had the one weird neighbor. You know the one I’m talking about; they just aren’t all together there. I’ve had my share of these neighbors, from the guy who lived behind us and refused to mow his lawn, to the rednecks that lived across the street. I’m going to tell you about the young man who lived across the hall from me freshman year though.
This young man, … Read more »
My old world Armenian neighbors always sound like they're yelling. From the moment I moved in and with impeccable regularity twice a day they pound something in their walk-in closet bordering my own here in my little one bedroom bungalow. I've started a top ten list of possible explanations that includes churning their own butter, beheading a goat, building an ark, burying relatives and actually banging. My whole apartment shakes. … Read more »
One weekend the neighbors set up a yard sale. They hang
clothes on a rope strung between two trees and pile everything else on or under makeshift tables of sawhorses and sheets of plywood. A set of barbells and a mound of stuffed animals sit in the grass along the sidewalk. The weather’s warm, breezy– all day Saturday and Sunday shoppers wander in and out of … Read more »
When I was growing up in Lynn Massachusetts. There werent a lot of neighbors I could talk to. Most were crack-heads...Drunks...Losers...There was one. Malcom is what we called him, though I am sure that was not his name. He used to entertain my sister and I by drinking our bubbles and swalllowing his cigarettes. He was one of the afformentioned people. A Drunk. … Read more »
My neighbor, Skip Douglas, just went by Skip. We never knew why. He was a very structured man like he’d been in the Army all his life, but as far as we knew, he wasn't at all. The way how structured he is and how he has his kids and a set schedule with yard work, meals, and more. Also, the way he dresses … Read more »
i am sixteen years old,
i dont talk to all of my neighbors.
the ones i have gotten close to have
passed away when i least expected,
i still feel like they live there when i go outside.
i think their spirits remain there forever.
As part of our new webcomic, Next-Door Neighbor, we thought it appropriate to have a little contest. Tell us your best true next-door neighbor story, and the winning tale will be matched with an artist and transformed into a webcomic and included as the final installment of Next-Door Neighbor.
No matter how close or how far, we all live next to someone, and we all have a Next-Door Neighbor story. With that in mind, editor Dean Haspiel asked some of his favorite storytellers and cartoonists to create their favorite NDN stories so we could share them with you.
By submitting an entry, you are granting SMITH the right to reprint or republish that entry online or in print, as well as make any necessary edits. See SMITH's terms of service for complete details.
This contest ends September 1, 2008. Prizes are not redeemable for cash and must be accepted as awarded. Winners are decided at the discretion of SMITH judges and all decisions are final. SMITH reserves the right to change the contest rules. Enter as often as you want. SMITH reserves the right to reprint or republish all entries.
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