Many of us don’t have a clue what’s going on in our neighbourhood. Perhaps it’s time to get nosy.
SO how much do you know about your neighbours?
Would you notice if they kept three or four young women locked up in the house for ten years or more?
Probably not.
In the 11 years that three women were held prisoner in a house in Cleveland, Ohio, neighbours noticed a handful of minor incidents unusual enough to mention them to the police, who thought them too trivial to investigate. But for most of the time life went on as normal. Either people really didn’t notice anything strange or they didn’t want to notice.
Time was when a neighbour could not even buy new underwear without the whole street hearing about it.
We chatted over fences, overheard arguments, were in and out of each others’ houses, almost lived each others’ lives.
Even in leafy avenues people met while walking to the shops, taking children to school, going about their daily lives before we hurried past in cars.
Not any more.
These days you’d probably be hard pushed to name all the people who live within 100 yards of you. We have all retreated into our own homes. We treasure our privacy. It’s all high hedges and locked doors and little more than an occasional “good morning”.
Old style battle-axes – think of Coronation Street’s late, great Ena Sharples – knew everyone and, what’s more, thought they had a God-given right to interfere as and when they saw fit. They were the upholders of standards on everything from maidenly morals to clean doorsteps.
Before there was no such thing as society, they were society and you crossed them at your peril. Maybe when we were young we were all scarred by encounters with such dragons, who always knew exactly what we’d been up to and didn’t hesitate to tell our parents. Now the last thing we want to be is an interfering busybody.
It’s why abductor Josef Fritzl could dig out a huge cellar under his house and keep his daughter and their children there, why other kidnappers have kept prisoners for years and why tragic, tortured family set-ups come to light only when the bodies are found.
Luckily, Amanda Berry, in Cleveland, Ohio, had the courage to attract the attention of a neigh bour. Luckily, he had the courage to investigate and break down a door. Somebody had at last taken notice.
We live increasingly isolated lives, each family in its own bubble. And that’s the way most of us like it. But as we see so often, it can have tragic consequences.
We don’t have to be Ena Sharples.
Neither do we have to be nosy neighbours.
But maybe a small passing interest in what is going on next door or in our street might not be a bad thing.
BRIDEZILLAS please note: actress Keira Knightley married rock singer James Righton last weekend. The bride wore a short white dress that she’d owned for at least five years, matched with a Chanel jacket, bare legs and ballet pumps and a daisy chain in her hair.
There were only guests at the ceremony and the bride arrived in her mother’s battered Renault Clio. Afterwards there was a party for 50 guests with lots of wine and music.
Now that’s what I call a wedding.
Not a white owl or dove or fairytale glass carriage to be seen. Unlike some footballers’ weddings, you couldn’t have confused it with a pantomime, a coronation or the Olympics opening ceremony.
The cost of the average wedding has now apparently gone up to well over £20,000. How much better off a lot of brides – and their families - would be, if they decided to be Keira copy cats instead.
CHILDREN who eat the same meals as their parents are healthier than those who eat “kids’ meals”, says researchers from Edinburgh. I bet their parents – just having to cook one meal instead of a entire menu of choices for picky kids – are happier too. And better off.
JIMMY Tarbuck, Max Clifford, William Roache... it’s admirable that police are investigating complaints against these men. It doesn’t matter how long ago it was, how long it’s taken, justice is justice and possible victims have the right to be heard.
The 1970s was another country where people did things differently.
But even if any woman was seen as fair game by any man, when it comes to children not even the atmosphere of those times is even the beginning of an excuse.
But while all these resources are being used to investigate the past, are we really so sure that it’s no longer happening? Celebrities are held in even higher regard and are sometimes allowed to behave appallingly.
So even more reason to be certain that such abuse is no longer going on today – to be brushed away for another 30 or more years.
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