What do you picture doing when you retire?
Lounging amongst big umbrellas on sunny beaches, taking the grandkids to the zoo, cropping a serious vegetable garden, or turning your wood carving hobby into a lucrative craft fair business?
Well, whatever you choose, can I just recommend that you also make time to just sit on your porch, sip some lemonade, and look up to smile and wave at people when they walk by?
Because other than cutting the little wedge of your neighbor’s lawn, lending out your snowblower, or collecting someone’s mail while they’re away, I tell you — nothing says friendly neighbor more than a couple old folks sitting on their rockers and just flashing those gums and waving those palms when you walk on by.
AWESOME!
I think I’m going to need a winter porch in the south.
There was an old guy sitting n a porch here…waving at people to come on in…. he had a shotgun laying on his lap……to take care of hippies and unwanted kin
ahhh this doesn’t happen in the UK, well not where I am from anyway :( my neighbours just stare out of their window instead, quite creepy I think!
LOVE this! I’m in Michigan, north of Detroit, yes even Detroiters sit on the porch, are friendly and wave! well…ok…most of us anyways:)
You don’t have to be old to sit out on your front porch and enjoy the people walking by. You can meet some facinating people.
When I moved to a new city, I stayed with my sister for a few weeks. She had porch-sitting neighbors, but they were all young, loud, and boozy.
i used to have a neighbour that would sit on her front porch with a notebook. It was many months after we moved in before i learned she would make notes on everyone’s comings and goings! She even knew what day i went for groceries and how many bags i brought in from the car…or how many times i parked on the street in front of her sidewalk. Of course, after our car was stolen i was pretty happy she had that notebook with all the license plate #s of cars she didn’t recognize and “shady characters” walking around!
Women should be jailed for invasion of privacy… and being a lunatic… security it may be, but these people ruin the neighbourhood by making it uncomfortable for people who don’t like being WATCHED.
I’ve found that the more rural, the more wavers.
I seen that a lot also. Older people are more friendly usually.
i desperately want a big wooden porch like that (not those colors though. id much prefer the natural wood look) and a nice creaky rocking chair. i always have. i love people watching
Lol once again awesome. Old guy down the road from house. Everday all day sitting on the porch watching the birds eat, listening to the poilce scanner. Always smiled and waved when we walked by. Me and my friends called him Crazy-ol-whats-his-name.
Cool awesome site!
In holland we dont have porches unforunately.. but there is just one guy in the street that stands the whole day (!) on the sidewalk and waves…. AWESOME
my neighbours do that all the time. they sit out front with fresh lemonade and the paper and wave to me as i come and go.
There is an old man up my road like that, except he doesn’t have a porch. He has a rocking chair just in front of the front window. He is always either outside feeding birds, or inside sitting on his rocking chair. I love that guy :)
i had a substitute teacher the other day, and he was telling us about how awesome this is. he came from a city where waving meant “get down!” so when he moved out to the boondocks, and he first saw this, he dove into the old folks’ bushes. : ) hehe.
Everyone waves in South Ontario.
I love it.
Are you kidding me!
These nosy sons of bitches have nothing else better to do with their time but snoop? My neighbours across the street sit out in their garage all day everyday, when the family comes to visit it’s a goddamn communal in the garage. I should add that there house faces lake ontario and their yard on the NON-street side is very nice, complete with a deck. I can’t wait til these old fu*ks die so our neighbourhood can come out of their houses without being watched….. there should be a law against this, it’s passive aggressive harassment. Man I hope they die soon…….
YOU could die first and problem would be solved! we all want to live… sorry! :)
On the street I live on there’s an old guy that has no legs, he sits outside on his riding scooter and waves at everyone that walks or drive by, he has no teeth and drinks beer, I toot my horn everytime I see him!! He puts a smile on my face everyday!!
There are some seriously grumpy codgers out there, men AND women… and my aunt – in her 70’s – is one of them. Epically miserable. Sonically miserable. Think Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino only with boobs. She’s even rascist like he was… and is there anything uglier than that?! I call her The Old Battleaxe… but of course I’m too wimpy to say it to her face. But generally speaking older people are so much more mellow and warm and kind and friendly. They are like little kids in reverse, there’s an innocence and warmth that comes back… and the slowness! They are mellow and in no hurry… exactly like toddlers. They are exploring and reflecting and relaxing. It’s inspiring. I think older people are seriously underrated and underappreciated.
We were in a food court and a senior citizen East Indian man sat beside us. His face was so warm and kind it just warmed my heart. He couldn’t speak English but he was beaming at our cute kids for half the lunch, you could tell he thought they were so funny. To me that is amazing to be that happy and warm… to not know the language would terrify me. I’d be holed up with my language tapes learning, learning, learning and refusing to come out til I did. Meanwhile this man just radiated love and warmth. It was the coolest, rarest, awesomest thing.
We don’t have the nice kind around here. We have the crazy, half-stoned old guys.
We had one guy that used to stand out by the road with his arm in a bale of clothes. For some reason he had this pile of clothes that was tied into a bale and he’d stick his arm in there (security I guess). With the other hand he’d wave at the speeding cars rushing past. Sometimes he’d fall over if the cars got too close.
There was an old man across the street. I was working on my house and he’d sit on his porch looking out. I’d wave to him but I never got a reaction. The old man would just sit there staring like he was blind. Then one day I got mad and cursed at things for awhile. Sometime later I climbed down the ladder, my back facing the old man. When I got to the bottom of the ladder and turned I almost stepped on him. Without a sound he had crossed the busy road and positioned himself at the bottom of my ladder. I screamed because I hadn’t seen him move. He’d just kind of “appeared”.
Well, he’s gone to his reward now, him and his chickens. The new neighbor I’ve only met once. Hell, he might be the fifth new neighbor. They all look the same since the old guy passed.
When i was a kid there was an old guy who sat in his living room waving to all the kids who walked by on their way to school.
Forgot all about that until I read this post!
yeah. thats awesome.
As long as I can hear children playing and birds singing, I’ll be happy as a meadow lark, on a porch swing would be my thing…that is when I am sitting.
it’s up!!
There is a very old man who walks down one of the main streets of my town every afternoon, without fail. He has the biggest, brightest smile on his face and he waves at passers by. He is quite famous in our town for his awesomeness!