Do you at least recognize the people who live near you? (children, conversation)

[Angry-Koala]

Originally Posted by GraceKrispy

Some. I'm not great at recognizing faces, so they have to have some other distinctive features that catch my eye, and I have to see them in the same places each time in order to recognize them. I start to recognize some people in grocery stores, at the bus stop, in the stores nearby... not so much other people in my apartment complex.

This is me. I'm afraid I will run across someone I "know" but it will be in a place I don't connect them and I'll be wondering why that stranger seemed to know me. Meanwhile, they'll be wondering why I was so darned rude. Sorry! I didn't mean anything by it! I'm just getting old and loosing my marbles. Maybe I should wear a sign to warn people

[Angry-Koala]

Originally Posted by jmcahacker

Funny story, I had someone come up to me several years ago in a grocery store check out and say hello. I didn't recognize them but I said hello back hoping that it would come to me. They asked how I had been and I answered and returned the question but the light still wasn't coming on. They finally said "You don't remember me do you?' and I apologized and admitted I didn't. She picked up a box of Honey Nut Cheerios and said "does this remind you?" I know that seems random but 5 years prior I did actually work at a plant that bottled honey so I assumed that's how she knew me but I still couldn't place a name and it was a small place with 4 or 5 regulars and lots of temps that came and went, sometimes only for a day or two. This also wasn't even in the same town as the store we were in but I had no other clue what she might have been talking about. I guess she could see by my face that I still wasn't coming up with a memory so she slammed the box back in her cart and muttered "never mind" and she got into a different line.

Lol, I love it!

[K12144]

Originally Posted by Cida

Other people are better at it than I am. I'm usually wrapped up in my own thoughts and don't necessarily notice other people.

This. Also, I think there are simply enough people around that I and the same few people are not at the same place at the same time (I also don't tend to have much of a "routine" as in, "On Saturday afternoon I am grocery shopping at Bondo's, I'm always at the pub on Thursday nights," etc. so even if other people do, doesn't mean I'm always there when they are). I almost never see even people I know who live in the same town anywhere except the places I know them from (whether it's work, church, etc.).

As far as my neighbors... I almost never see them. Yes, I'll see people in passing, but, rarely have any idea which apartment they came from (and since people from at least two different buildings in my complex park in the same lot, and people from other buildings come to our laundry room, someone I see in or outside my building doesn't necessarily live here, anyway). I'm not certain I want to talk to them... I'd have the urge to ask "so are you the people who live above me who are always dropping things on the wood floor and clomping around in your loud-soled shoes, or the annoying dudebro across the hall always yelling about his video games, or one of those people who runs up the loud wooden stairs with your passel of friends like a whole herd of elephants so my walls practically shake?" (Conversely, they could say, "Are you that musician person?" so I'm not completely innocent. You can't help knowing everything about a person when the walls/floors are this thin; no matter how quiet you try to make it and in reasonable hours, when you can almost hear someone else's conversation, there isn't much you don't hear.)

I always knew more people in my mom's building than any I'd lived in, but that's because it was a senior building and people were around in the hallways and on the grounds more. I have to say she got to know neighbors on her floor way more than I would have if I'd lived there, though. I did live one place though where I started chatting with one guy when we were both outside and he knew just where I lived, even though I barely knew he lived there at all! (FWIW, though, he also did maintenance, so it might be expected he'd have a better idea of who was who, besides the fact that most people probably pay more attention to that stuff than I do.)

Originally Posted by jmcahacker

No. Like others have said I recognize employees of places I shop but I don't recognize random customers. When I was on the other side of the counter at a convenience store I'd recognize many people but usually because they came in at the same times and bought the same things. Even then if I see them out of the usual context I will often recognize them but not remember how I "know" them.

Funny story, I had someone come up to me several years ago in a grocery store check out and say hello. I didn't recognize them but I said hello back hoping that it would come to me. They asked how I had been and I answered and returned the question but the light still wasn't coming on. They finally said "You don't remember me do you?' and I apologized and admitted I didn't. She picked up a box of Honey Nut Cheerios and said "does this remind you?" I know that seems random but 5 years prior I did actually work at a plant that bottled honey so I assumed that's how she knew me but I still couldn't place a name and it was a small place with 4 or 5 regulars and lots of temps that came and went, sometimes only for a day or two. This also wasn't even in the same town as the store we were in but I had no other clue what she might have been talking about. I guess she could see by my face that I still wasn't coming up with a memory so she slammed the box back in her cart and muttered "never mind" and she got into a different line.

Of course, maybe she thought YOU were someone else and was the one with faulty memory... (And, if she wanted to play games rather than telling you outright who she was and where you knew her from, not much scope for her to get all huffy if you're unable to "play.")

Originally Posted by Angry-Koala

This is me. I'm afraid I will run across someone I "know" but it will be in a place I don't connect them and I'll be wondering why that stranger seemed to know me. Meanwhile, they'll be wondering why I was so darned rude. Sorry! I didn't mean anything by it! I'm just getting old and loosing my marbles. Maybe I should wear a sign to warn people

I've done this often. It used to be a big problem at church with people who'd talk to me and I knew the face (hopefully) but never remembered the name... so I got good at noncommittal friendly conversation, lol. (I was a church musician so was well more prominent in front of them than they were to me, which is also why they'd talk to me-- "oh the music today was great" &etc.)

At least, I hope my face never betrayed that I hadn't a clue who they were... no one ever acted offended, so perhaps I was successful.

[GraceKrispy]

Originally Posted by Angry-Koala

This is me. I'm afraid I will run across someone I "know" but it will be in a place I don't connect them and I'll be wondering why that stranger seemed to know me. Meanwhile, they'll be wondering why I was so darned rude. Sorry! I didn't mean anything by it! I'm just getting old and loosing my marbles. Maybe I should wear a sign to warn people

I've thought about a sign, too! I will sometimes tell people when I meet them that I'm not good at recognizing faces and if they see me and I don't notice them to feel free to say hi- I'm not trying to be rude. I actually say it in a better way than I've said it here

Some people really just have (to me) very unrecognizable faces. I also can't look at a picture of someone and recognize that person when I see him/her. I'm always amazed at people who can. They look so different in real life!!

[hotzcatz]

We do know many of the folks in town by name, although not all of them. We've only got about 1,500 people in our town, so even if we don't officially know each other, we all kinda know who's from town and who's not. We also have loads of tourists through town, but they're pretty easy to distinguish from the folks who live here. It's when the folks from the next town over drop by to visit that we have a hard time figuring out if they're from around here or not.

I work at a small shop in town and see a lot of folks there and don't always remember their names. I was there one day visiting with the shop owner and someone else we both knew came into the shop but neither one of us could remember her name. When we admitted that we'd forgotten her name, she said she'd drop by later to see if we'd remembered it by then. Like that was helpful! We never did remember her name, but fortunately someone else wandered into the shop who also knew her and told us what her name was. She was a snowbird, someone who's only in town for a few months in the winter while they're hiding from the cold on the mainland, so how are we supposed to remember?

[Forever Blue]

I've lived in my apt for almost 7 yrs now. The buildings of this complex are 3 stories & there's a total of about 400 units spread over a large area. I ONLY recognize who lives the closest next door to me & maybe the next apt over from them.

I have no idea who lives directly above, below, etc. Overall, we don't pass by other residents here that much, so when we do, we're not staying outside staring at each other to see which apt they go into.

I used to know this elderly man in an apt somewhere below me, but that was only because he was sitting outside smoking all the time, so we'd wave HI quite often.

I LOVE it here. We all keep to ourselves & if we're outside, it's for a purpose walking to/from our cars to/from our apts.

[petsandgardens]

Aside from business work, I belong to groups, have family, extended family, pets, many interests and friends, get out and about, have lived where we are a while now.

I know my neighbors. Visit, talk, meet up with, share some activities with them. I know whose kids are back from college or whose grandkids are in town and to listen for my outside water spigot left on as some perceived mischief the younger ones like. While kids are grown, I still haven't given up the innate school calendar timing in my mind after so many years of it. I have that summer tree that blooms with sand pails and beach shovels and pool floats for when kids come by with mom or dad.

And there's the guy who is late returning from his Florida house who I wonder if he'll let me have his large tree branch that fell during the winter storm to add to my landscaping plan. And the guy who spends a few months with family here and revs his engine for 20 seconds before he really gets going and tears out (although the revving has been a lot longer this winter). And the people across the street who are building around the corner now and haven't yet decided whether to move to the new house or sell it.

And the women whose vehicles line the road one day a month for a special bridge game and the house that has a home church group meeting monthly evenings filling the nearby parking area.

And the elderly guy who believes our trees are the root (yes) of all his evils including the recent bathroom back up in one of his bathrooms even though the plumber and his wife say no, it would be all bathrooms in the house if that were so, so it's not so. I stay out of it.

And the neighbor who amazingly has had and recovered from several major cancers.

And the people with the airbnb and the people who have a problem with airbnbs.

And the family whose home in our neighborhood is only one of their homes, all for them and not rented. And the people who are forgoing cable and tv and cell phones and a better vehicle so they can afford to stay a little longer in their homes here.

One grocer we go to near our house ... don't see many people we know except the clerks. Don't see many...in fact, can't remember the last time...who stop and chat with people they know. The grocery further from our house...lots of people we know who all know each other from schools, church, work, neighborhood. A very social time. The place should set up a cafe.

I have noticed there are people who have a problem with facial recognition. And there are some who remember every detail about a person's face and clothing for years.

There are people who know each other by vehicle or by pet as they walk by.

[Birds Fan]

I live in a town of about 30,000-not a major metropolitan area, but it's also not Small Town America. I know who all my neighbors are, and I recognize certain people I encounter at the store from time to time because I've seen them before. But the people I see at the store, I don't know who they are-I don't know anything about them. So I have no reason to say anything beyond "excuse me" to them.

[The Dissenter]

The beauty of living in the city is that my neighbors mind their own business so I don’t really know or recognize them and don’t care to.

[phonelady61]

being as I have lived here five years and I know most of my close neighbors like at 5 houses up and down and I wave and speak if I can or I think they will hear me . I think it is important to at least wave or speak or both .