No Welcome Wagon when moving to a new town?

My parents just relocated from another state.

I called the Chamber of Commerce to submit their
names and address for the Welcome Wagon. The
city not only does not offer anything for new residents, but
flat told me that they don't give out packages because
the recipients in the past seemed ungrateful.

Well, this tells me a few things. One, the welcome package
consisted of sales pitches from local vendors, a hoard of
"come to our church" pamphlets and nothing personal to
welcome the newfolk. You know, even a coupon for a free
small ice cream cone would be fine. Something, anything.

When I mentioned what a wonderful greeting my cousin received
in another town, the clerk said that we were welcome to come
pick up the local road maps and a phone book. Uh, gee, thanks.
You can't even mail them?

Surely the chamber could at least dig into their deep pockets for
a pad of fancy paper and at least fake a welcome on a piece of
paper. Sheesh!

What about your town? Does it offer a welcome package, or
a 'come on in, give us your tax dollars' deal?

Wuvie,

WOW! I have NEVER heard of such a concept! Sounds like something from the "good ol' days" doesn't it! I moved to a new town that is building at a fast pace and I faxed the city (after a year) to request "with all the new tax revenue" that our neighborhood get speed bumps for safety and the city told me they do not "provide nor maintain speed bumps."

But with as high as our taxes are here I suppose I should be glad they aren't spending the money on welcoming packages....we can hardly get enough in the regular services (cops, etc) from the taxes I suppose (from the looks of it)...

Oklahoma must be a typically very friendly place!

I've heard of welcome wagons, but I think that was from my grandmother's days.

When I bought my house, I did get a lot of coupons and offers in the mail from local merchants, but that's all.

I would have been thrilled if I could just get people to help me move.

Hi there,

Oh yes, this is a very small town we're talking about. So small that generations
of people are taught by the same teacher. Everyone knows someone, who
they work for, where they live, or who they used to be married to. If they don't
quite know, trust me, they fill in the blanks using their imaginations.

Before you know it, you develop a reputation and you don't even know why.

But it's sad that the city chamber doesn't even send something in the mail. It
would be as simple as the utility companies reporting residents moving in
from other states, easily revealed by the letters of credit or established account
notices from previous offices in another state, which are often required to
open a new utility account.

Come on in, support our community though we've failed to acknowledge you.

Tsk tsk tsk.

when i moved to umatilla from the keys, i got a huge Welcome Wagon packet in the mail with all sorts of local discounts for useful things. it was great. we got free dinners, bottles of wine with dinners, half off on furniture, hardware stores, etc. best of all, they were all local establishments and we used them all. it also contained a list of local phone numbers for restaurants, vets, doctors etc. in addition to the normal expected numbers of police and fire.

We moved from California to Albuquerque, NM five years ago and leaving our friends and neighbors was a big transition for us. But, we were very excited about our first house which is in a small, pretty neighborhood, and looked forward to meeting our neighbors. My husband laughed when I told him that neighbors would likely stop by to welcome us, perhaps even bring us a pie! No one ever came, much less Welcome Wagon. I finally gave up and went to every house and introduced myself. People were polite but seemed puzzled. Over time we've developed cordial but distant relationships with our neighbors, and I'm told that's the way it is in Albuquerque. My next door neighbor has lived in her home for 16 years, yet does not know the family across the street who have lived there equally as long. California was far friendlier.

When a new family recently moved in down the street, I walked down and introduced myself. AND I brought her a pie!

june,

that was so nice of you! we live in a new subdivision in texas and NO ONE goes door to door to meet and greet! we started out introducing ourselves to neighbors as they'd move in but eventually even for us the enthusiasm wore off because people are just not interested....we've given garden produce, mowed lawns that needed it, etc for neighbors and still haven't made more than acquantances of it. i grew up on the same street all my life so we always knew everyone but even there people didn't get together or know other people's business.

Up until five years ago, I lived in Memphis, TN. One of the "bedroom" communities was Collierville and I worked as the groomer in a vet clinic there. Collierville had Welcome Wagon and our animal hospital included a coupon for a free pet exam and a % off of grooming in the welcome package. I can't tell you how much business we got from those coupons. People appreciate the gesture of the package and it's a great marketing tool for small business.

I will have to say that here in Mandeville people do make an effort to get to know their neighbors. I moved here knowing no one. No family here, no friends. It did not take very long at all to establish friendships which is nice. I don't know why people have become so antisocial overall but I think it's sad. I guess everyone is just too busy trying to make ends meet and that's sad too.

The folks across the street, don't get me wrong, I'm sure they
are good people, but are not what others might call friendly. I think
many people hesitate to light that candle, because then every day
as you pull into the driveway, there stands 'Fred' or 'Nancy'
(fill in name of your choice) to bother you.

'Tis true, good fences make good neighbors, but jeez, an occasional
wave might not hurt too much.

We wave, smile, offer excess produce and such, but they decline
every time. We've learned to wave at him and just look at her, as she
will not wave. I think her hand is stuck or something. LOL.

On the other side is a woman who seems content to live her own little life
alone, which is alright with us, and on the other side we have people we'd
sooner cover with hedges, so it works out well, I suppose.

I have to admit that here, the tropical storms & hurricanes are a major ice breaker. Everyone is outside getting their houses prepared and conversation starts. People help one another get things moved into the house or tied down. Then after the storm no one has any air conditioning so it drives us all out of the house and onto the porch (like the "good" old days). That's honestly how I got to know most of the people on this block. Maybe the invention of air conditioning had something to do with our "desocialization" 8>)).

We used to have Welcome Wagon 20+ years ago, but I'm not sure now.

I live in a rural county with several small towns...the largest has about 7000 people. My town...(which I'm about 3 miles out, has 3500)

I know 90% of my neighbors for several miles up and down the road...and wouldn't hesitate to stop if I needed something, and hope they feel the same about me.

I my neighbor works for the Chamber of Commerce, so I think I'll just ask her about Welcome Wagon.

Montrose, CO had a welcome wagon type thing when I moved there fifteen years ago - I don't know what they might have now. (1991) Prior to that, I never thought to ask or look, and in Montrose I saw an ad in the paper when looking for garage sales. (That's usually how I get to know a place :-)

Bullhead City, AZ - the school district had local information and discounts something like a welcome wagon, since they brought in so many new teachers every year.

Janesville, WI - I didn't inquire, as my landlord was my neighbor, and like everyone I met when I moved there, she was super helpful and friendly. I'd never run into anything like it, and I miss living there. I didn't know everyone in the neighborhood, but I knew a few and was happy to share baked goods and a few friendly words now and then.

Hoopa, CA - moved here three years ago, and my welcome from one neighbor was, "Don't feed the dogs and don't feed the kids." I guess that set the tone for our relationship, since both were on my list of to-dos within days. I regularly had the neighborhood kids in to snack and play (some weekends, when families gathered, I had 15+ ranging from diaper to Jr. high size), and the six or seven strays became my fed and loved porch sitters. Fortunately, we were able to move out of the rental several months later to our own home with land, and I took all the dogs that I could with me. Then, the welcome committee became the "skilled labor" who saw the invisible word "MARK" on my forehead, or folks looking for $20 for gas (with the promise of a fish when the time was right). That went on for two years; now I bill myself as the "Bad B... from NY" (though I'm from upstate about 30 years ago) . The folks asking for money stopped coming to my gate when I started only giving $20 for $20 worth of work, ON THE SPOT. No one comes for money any more, and I've concluded I can do as bad a job as anyone I pay, so I'm learning to do the work that has to be done almost all by myself.

(I'm not so cynical now that no one is here milking me with the half-tuned in radio blaring, cig butts and soda cans tossed around the ground, etc. etc. Now to deal with the neighbors who rent the trailer in front of me and just leave their trash on the ground FOREVER, then try to get away with burning it. ARGGHHH... I have to get brave and see if I can help them deal with their trash in a better way.)

Sorry, WUVIE. I didn't mean to digress so much. My mind isn't particularly able to do one topic at a time.....:-)

A good, friendly neighborhood is a rare and wonderful thing.

Hi, MsPaws and Tir-Na-Nog, haven't run into you for awhile.

We've lived in our house for over 20 years and became very close to the couple next door. (Our nearest neighbors are on that one side and two others around the corner whose back yards abut our one-acre corner.) We used to spend Christmas Eve with our next door neighbors. Since their children are in other states, I helped one son make arrangements for his parents' 50th anniversary party. In short, we became like family. When the husband died and the wife was in poor health, we slept at her house so she wouldn't be alone. (She would have done the same for us had the circumstances been reversed.) She finally went back to New England to live near her daughter. However, she couldn't wait to get back here and came for a visit after a year. I had a luncheon for her that included six other neighbors. Every year she spends time at her son's vacation home in S. FL and she comes up here either by car, plane, or train (we drive her back down)--except for this past winter due to my own health problems. She's now 88 and as feisty as ever. To say I miss my adopted little mama is an understatement!

I must also add that in the 18 years we were neighbors, neither of us ever just dropped in on the other without calling first. I think one of the reasons our friendship blossomed was because we respected each other's privacy.

Unfortunately, I have no desire to be friendly with the people who bought little mama's house. For various reasons, these people should live where they have NO neighbors. When they let their dog bark for half an hour at 6:00 a.m., I knew we'd never be friends! They let the dog out as early as 4:30 and are too lazy to let it back in when it barks. They also leave it out in the heat with no water while it begs to get in...definitely not my kind of people.

There is a family who moved in about 10 years ago on the corner across from us, and I haven't met them. I've never even seen the woman. One day there was a woman out in the yard, and I went over to say hello, but it turned out to be someone visiting. However, my husband has spoken with the gentleman, and they've helped each other out with a couple of things in the yard. But I doubt I'd recognize the man if he came to the door.

We're friendly with two other couples whose yard adjoins ours at the back. One couple are snowbirds, and we're closer to them (both spacewise and otherwise). I've never been in the home of the other couple, but they've been in ours (for the ex neighbor's luncheon).

We know (or know of) a few other people around the corner, one of whom I had to go to court to testify against in a nuisance dog case. (He now has 11 loose kittens, but I think the scary dogs aren't there anymore. He was told to keep them inside the fence, but he never did--even after paying a fine and being forced to go to Pet Education School.) We are not friendly, to say the least. He, by the way, is friends with the fellow next door (who lives with his mother and has never worked). We refer to them as Jerk 1 (next door) and Jerk 2. Besides the little barker, Jerk 1 also had a pit bull that scared the daylights out of me when I was in my garden. It came running at me growling with its teeth bared (the little morning barker was running behind it). He called it back before it reached me--and before my husband hit it with a shovel, the only thing he had at hand. And that little incident cost Jerk 1 over $200...unlicensed dogs, no rabies shots, unleashed and aggressive. His answer to that was to get drunk and stand at the end of our driveway shaking his fist in the air and swearing at us. He later told my husband WE had cost him the money, but DH calmly answered that no, he'd cost himself the fine because he wasn't a responsible pet owner. I so miss my little mama living in that house!

Yes, Paws, a good friendly neighborhood is indeed a rare and wonderful thing! I guess I'd describe ours as partially so. At least we don't have anyone stopping by looking for handouts!

As far as Welcome Wagon, I believe that's a private company, not a part of any city government. I don't know how it works: Does a city contact WW and say it would be a nice thing to have in their community, or does WW contact the city for leads? I'm guessing it's the latter. Maybe you could contact WW if you're interested in having them serve your town.

Welcome Wagon:
http://www.welcomewagon.com/?poe=welcomewagon

How ironic...I just received this job opening notice in my Monster.com account:
http://jobsearch.monster.com/getjob.asp?JobID=46230101&aid=47819253-586&WT.mc_n=MKT000125&WT.mns_tc_jaint=control

I don't want random people showing up at my front door. If they go to the trouble to recognize I'm "new in town", I worry what else they're looking for. As a single female, I'd get a strong case of the "heebie jeebies" if somebody showed up at my door and said, "Hi! I'm from the Chamber of Commerce. Here's a basket of fresh fruit and home-baked cookies for you! Welcome to town!" I'd never eat the food.

When I moved out to my current house in the country, two neighbors stopped by. They only did it when I was outside, though. Gave me a much safer feeling than if they'd popped in the front door.

This is certainly a concept from the past. I have lived in Florida for so many years, of the 27, only about 10 were as a homeowner. The rest was as a renter. Having a "Welcome Wagon" every time you move would be kind of silly, particularly where there is such an influx of newcomers that quickly become disallusioned with the dreams of the "goldcoast" and rarely stay for very long.

But even in a State/town with such a large turnover of newcomers, the local post offices seem to have taken the job of Welcome Wagon. They send out packets with coupons from local businesses and information sheets pertinent to the neighborhood that you live in.

All the above was memories of living and moving around in the big city.

I recently moved to North Central Florida, a large county with rural cities where the largest city might have 5,000 population. I did not receive a welcome packet from the post office or anyone else. I did not receive a welcome from the neighbors. I did have one stop by to find out if the ladders I was using belonged to him or not. (btw, they were mine)

Another neighbor promised me 2 times he would remove the furniture that he had used on my property for a "hangout", but he never did.

I actually expected a small town hospitality but the reality of it is, most of the people who live near here came from a big city, same as myself and brought their big town attitudes with them.

So we enjoy the peace, quiet and solitude without any neighborly friendliness and when the neighbor drives his tractor across your wildlife or garden area, or leaves cig. butts on the dry pine needles, you politely ask him to not do that.

This is 2006.

A sad commentary on the state of things and the State of Florida.