Noso Lisi Tors
I stole this image from Mouse’s facebook, with her permission. It’s taped to my front door, after all. The weather gets a little warm here on the Planet Ann Arbor and the door-to-door folks come out of the woodworks. Replacement windows folks. Bathtub liner folks. Jehovah’s Witnesses. I have a beloved childhood friend who is happily involved in that sect and I am pretty sure he knows enough not to try to proselytize to me but he doesn’t operate on The Planet Ann Arbor that I know of.
I don’t really mind the Jehovah’s Witnesses at my door. I don’t believe in the stuff that they believe in but they are real people and when I say “no thanks”, they are polite and go away. It’s some of the others that infuriate me. There was one time when a rowdy college-age nitwit asked me to “sponsor” him in some “young American” contest or whatever. By buying candy. Roight. I had two tiny children in my house then and he made me a little nervous. So, I said, “no thanks!” and then I shut the big wooden door. I could hear the nitwit saying, “she just slammed the door on me” and laughing as he left my porch. And then, a few years ago, some guys DROVE into my driveway and got out of their vee-hickle with what kind of looked like cleaning supplies but I wasn’t quite sure. They were *really* weird and I was home alone and I was wishing my kids were *not* in college/high school then because three women can certainly be better at getting rid of an unwanted person at the door than one. But they left and they got in their vee-hickle and drove slowly down the street and around the corner before they pulled up into someone else’s driveway.
Mouse posted this sign over the weekend. The GG and I were both out of town but, even though Mouse is a competent adult, I kicked into Moom mode when I heard that there were solicitors in the neighborhood. Lock the door! Do not let those people in! I once made a sign similar to the one that Mouse made. If you are a girl scout or a boy scout or a student at one of the neighborhood schools, I will probably buy something from you. Religious folks? I won’t be rude to you but do not come here. Others? Stay out, please. And you magazine sales folks who are victimizing college students in the summer. Do not come here!!!! Blechhh!
March 16th, 2010 at 7:05 pm
It is creepy to have strangers show up at the door. I don’t like it AT ALL. We don’t have a sign but we do have a locked screen door, from which I peer at them and make them go away.
March 16th, 2010 at 8:30 pm
Had a knock on the door this morning and I thought for sure it was FedEx or the mailperson needing me to sign something and it was two Jehovah’s Witness ladies foisting a Jesus pamphlet at me. (At least I think they were Jehovah’s Witness — could have been Mormons for all I know) and yes, I DID slam the door. Plus, I was still in my jammies and was a little embarrassed about that.
March 16th, 2010 at 8:42 pm
I just say, “Today is not a good day,” and look sad. Then I shut the door.
March 17th, 2010 at 8:51 am
Love the sign!
I hate it when I see strangers roaming the neighborhood selling products or inviting me to join their organization, be it Greenpeace, Jehovah’s Witnesses* or anything else. If I want to join something I’ll do it on my own time.
When I was little my mom used to panic when folks would come to the door to sell something or ask her to listen to a lecture of some sort. She’d gather my brother and me and hide behind the furniture while the people outside rang and rang the doorbell. She said her mom did the same thing (and I might have done it once or twice with my own kids). Heh, a generational trait perhaps? Nowadays I tell anyone at home that if they answer the door they need to deal with the people at the door.
*There was a JW church on the next block of our street when I was growing up, so we got A LOT of folks trying to tell us about Jesus. One time two women came to the door when I was home alone — I was in my late teens — and I invited them in and served them tea. They were very nice and I was practicing my listening skills.
March 17th, 2010 at 11:57 am
When I first moved into the house here and had a newborn baby, I admit I got pretty nervous when strangers came to the door and occasionally would try to pretend I wasn’t home. Nowadays, I know that my neighborhood is pretty safe (although anything can happen anywhere) and I feel more annoyed than anything.
It’s my house and I value my privacy and I don’t want strangers at the door. Not too long ago, somebody rang the doorbell at around 9 PM. I made the GG answer the door saying to him, “At 9 o’clock, it had better be Luke.” Luke is our neighbor across the street and, indeed, that’s who it was.