I want my doorman!

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Yesterday my next door neighbor was working in her garden when a stranger walked onto her property and persistently called out to her: "Hey lady! Hey lady!" She did her best to ignore him, sensing that it was not in her best interest to engage in conversation. The guy just kept calling out to her more loudly. Finally she said "Thanks but I'm not interested." His reaction was to become verbally aggressive. "What do you mean you're not interested, you don't even know what I'm going to say. I just want you to help me get a better life and buy a few subscriptions. Must be nice to live in a neighborhood like this one."

He huffed and puffed until he'd gotten everything off his chest and proceeded to the house next door. Then to the next house, then the next one, until a seasoned suburbanite called the local police.

Needless to say my neighbor was left a little shaken. There she was, alone, without her phone with an angry stranger who seemed ready for a fight.

When I lived in the city, in a doorman building, I never once experienced that feeling because our doorman was the gatekeeper to creeps like these. And if by chance someone did manage to get into the building I just had to pick up my intercom to ask for the doorman's help.

Out here, you're on your own. For one, you have no doorman, and secondly your neighbors are not always home. And it's not only about strangers. I had a gardner last year who made really inappropriate sexual comments to me and I couldn't fire him on the spot because I was alone and I felt vulnerable. It's also a consideration when you let in a plumber, a painter and repairman into your home for the first time. There you are literally letting a complete stranger into your house. Of course 90% of the time there is nothing to worry about but if a time did come, who am I going to call? In the meantime I always let me husband know when I've made an appointment for the house.

From now on I might also be a little more careful about closing my house doors and I might not be so friendly to random people who walk into my yard unannounced. Out here there are no doormen, you're on your own baby (glad I kept up my kickboxing!)

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