We live in the ghetto.
It should be no secret to you by now. And because we live in such a “fun” neighborhood, we aren’t too familiar with our neighbors. My bad. Nothing says let’s be friends like a fast-speed cop chase or drive-by shooting. Oh so welcoming, really. Now we have had the occasional knock on our door resulting in the need to rescue a ball thrown over the fence, or to borrow a phone due to being locked out of of a house. But never was I prepared for what I experienced the other night.
There was a knock at our door and it could only mean one of two things; we had a package to sign for or it was a salesman. I let Sam go ahead and answer it, because I was feeding Pippa, but man do I wish I hadn’t. One of the neighbors on our street greeted us with an empty plastic cup and asked if he could borrow some sugar. What?! I was totally shocked. Sure I’ve heard of Southern hospitality and the idea of knocking on your neighbor’s door for a missed ingredient, but really I thought that was an urban legend. Who even does that?! Apparently our neighbor does. I felt so prim, proper and completely Southern because we had someone choose our house to help in their culinary efforts. How flattering. That was until he informed us he needed 4 cups of sugar. To make what, you may wonder?!
Tea.
Sweet tea to be exact. Clearly he likes a little tea with his sugar because that was a lot. Sam took his little glass to go fill up, but his suspicions were correct when it all wouldn’t fit. So being the good hospitable people that we are, we sent him on his tea making way with our container of sugar. Yeah, we were so nice. Helping a “friend” out in their time of need. We had made all Southerners and sugar addicts proud. It felt good.
A few minutes later we heard another knock on our door and was greeted by our grateful neighbor bringing back our extra sugar. As Sam was about to close the door he heard, “Do you have any tea bags too?“. Say what?! How is it this man planned to make his extremely sweet tea?! And did he think that by asking in two different rounds he would confuse us and we wouldn’t realize all he really had was the water. For all we knew he was going to come back an ask for that too. But not wanting to ruin our kindness streak (all of one time we’ve been presented with this situation), Sam grabbed a handful of tea bags and passed them along. Boy was he lucky we had those. If not he’d be stuck with sugar water…which I’m not too certain he wouldn’t enjoy, ha!
And that my friends is the most awkward knock on the door my family has ever answered….
What’s your awkward story?
oh wow! that was a lot of sugar huh? lol!
We borrow stuff from our neighbors all the time! And they will from us, too…but, we’ve lived here for two years and consider them to be great friends so it’s not as weird as knocking on someone’s door randomly, which I would never in a trillion years do.
The house next door to us is for sale if you want to move in and join in our food-borrowing neighborly ways! lol!
PS – OMG. 4 CUPS?!
And then he came back and asked if y’all had a pitcher, didn’t he?
That’s definitely awkward…and a little bit weird too!
I’m wondering if he ran out of tea bags mid-brew…like he added too much sugar but then didn’t want to waste your sugar so came in search of more tea bags. 😉 lol
My weirdest knocking experience: In college, I lived in an apartment in Fort Worth. One night at about 2-3am, this loud pounding came on our door. Terrified the beejeejees out of me. I crept slowly to my door so I could look out the peep hole. There was a shirtless guy standing on the other side hollering for someone that was not me or my roommate. I silently prayed he would go away….he did some more knocking and hollering but finally left. Whew….that had me so nervous that night!!
Do we live in the same neighborhood? Haha! I can not wait to move up like George and Weezy! You’re nice for being a good neighbor!
Dont make a habit of helping out needy neighbors my dear or you will never get rid of them. First sugar, then your DVD player. I fine its best to say I do have it I need to grocery store and just have not made yet… But if you give me the money I can pick you up a bag when I go. Weed out the natural beggers from those who just forgot to pick it up at the store. Four cups is a lot of sugar… next time grab a few extra packets with your coffee at McDonalds and pass them out the door.
GREAT STORY!!!!!!! I love that your Southern hospitality knows no bounds. Everybody needs a little (or a lot) of sugar in their tea. LOL
FOUR CUPS. Wow! So nice of you to be that hospitable. The creepiest knock on my door came one weekday afternoon from a man who I’m sure was a would-be burglar scouting out the area. He pretended to be someone who used to live in my house and wanted to see my backyard because he “used to hang out there a lot.” Of course I said NO. Then he asked if Harold and so-and-so still lived across the street in a particular house that I knew had been owned and occupied for years by a widowed woman. By the end of the brief conversation (I was giving him the brush off) he was practically asking me on a date. And I’m married! I called the cops and explained the whole encounter to two officers who were convinced that I was right: he was checking out my street for which house to rob. Luckily I was able to give a good description of the man and the car he was driving.
I remember neighbors at our door as a kid asking for random stuff like that but have never as a grown adult with a mortgage had anyone at my door. Crazy! And then they ask for tea! Crazier!
OMG!!! The hell???
I don’t even have words. But I’m grateful I moved to a new neighborhood recently where my neighbors and their kids welcomed us by going to the farmer’s market and grabbing some fresh veggies. I wouldn’t even know what to say if a man came and asked for sugar and tea packets. LOL!
What nice neighbors you guys are. 4 cups of sugar and the tea bags?! Yea, I’m shocked he didn’t ask for water and a pitcher to mix it in too.
That’s hilarious! And a lot of sugar, I only use 2 cups in mine. LOL!
I love this. Hilarious! I am the crazy on the other hand neighbor who is the greeter of the street. The best time was when our next door neighbors first moved in, I brought them a plate of freshly baked cookies and a note with our names. The wife answered and immediately turned to call to her mom and husband & sister. She was so excited! They were from Australia and had heard that this might happen but thought it was a tall tale. We became fast friends and never spent a week without a dinner or brunch at one another’s house. So sad that they had to move back last year. Hope your neighborly visits get better!
Hahaha!!! Thank goodness I live in a small town is all I can say 🙂
Wow, being from the South, sweet tea is my water. But even I only put 2 cups of sugar per gallon of tea! Maybe he was making a BIG ole batch of tea!
Hilarious! I have only just found your blog but I am really enjoying it so far. In fact I enjoy this post so much that immediately after reading it I handed the computer to my mom and told her to read it.
We live in a mostly Hispanic neighborhood, so we can’t actually speak more than a few basic words to much of our neighbors; however we have had some amusing happenings. Once one neighbors son came by and asked for $10, which was really confusing. We have also had neighbors come into our yard with nets asking for help catching their runaway chickens which just happened to of burrowed under the fence and were stuck in our yard.
Wow! I’ve been in my house eight years, and I’ve never had anything nearly as weird. No sugar AND no tea? Just odd.
Oh, and happy SITS day!
This actually does happen a lot in my ‘hood. Granted, I live next to sweet little old retired ladies who delight at the mention of company. I have several friends in my neighborhood, too. Often times we will text each other what we have in our pantry and compile a meal for our families so that neither of us has to make a last minute run to the grocery store. Growing up, my mom constantly loaned and borrowed sugar, milk, eggs, etc to our neighbors. It truly is customary 🙂 This story, on the other hand, is awkward. I mean, what was this guy thinking? And how confident was he? Remember often times Jesus does come to us in disguise 🙂
Funny post!!