an awkward situation

I swear, sometimes I just don't *get* people. Here's what I did, in a fit of purging: I had a huge pile of boys' clothes, mostly in sizes 10-12. I really wanted to get rid of these clothes so someone else could use them. It's not like they were really in my way, but I hate useful things not being put to good use. I've given stuff to a woman at work who has two sons, is a real bargain shopper, and really appreciated the clothes, to other friends and co-workers over the years, and to family members with younger boys. I have a neighbor who often showed up at MY door with a load of boys clothes from her two sons who were older than my two sons. I really appreciated that and expressed much gratitude to her. It was a very kind gesture, I thought, to anyone who has young kids who are constantly growing out of clothes. If there was stuff she gave me that I couldn't use, I just passed it on to another kid who could, but made sure she knew I was most appreciative.

Well, this time, instead of dragging two big bags into work, I thought, hey, there are two young boys who live right next door and one house down...one about 6 or 7 and one maybe 8 or 9. I thought I'd just bounce over there with these clothes, which are all really nice clothes with a lot of life left (the old, stained stuff usually gets recycled into rags or whatever). Some nike, adidas, old navy, lots of cool skateboard tshirts, the cool, shiny basketball pants, and stuff like that. All clean, nicely folded, and in really good condition. The partner thought it would be weird of me to just show up with bags of clothes, but honestly, when my neighbor K did that, I was just thrilled. Turns out, both of the moms I was going to offer clothes to were at one of the moms' houses.
One is a newish neighbor, one I've known for 17 years! I explained what I had, and asked if they thought they could use the clothes, and they both just looked at me like I had three heads--"Why would we want your old clothes?" kind of looks. I didn't really know what to say at that point. One of the moms, the neighbor of 17 years, sort of wrinkled up her nose and said, "Are they jeans?" I stammered, "Well, yes, some jeans, and some athletic wear." Then they said their sons were both only size eight. Ok, well, one of them looked like a pretty big kid to me, and I thought how long does it take a kid who is size eight to be in a size 10? If they are like my kids, it takes like...a month, tops.

At this point I was feeling extremely awkward and said I could just take them to goodwill or I knew of other kids....and then the neighbor cut in and said, "Well, you can leave them by my door (across the street) and I'll go through them." No "thanks", no "it's nice of you to offer", no anything like that. Well. Ok. But. I said, "If you really can't use them, I hope you'll pass them on to someone who can." She said, "I'll just take them to Goodwill if we don't want them." (Nothing against Goodwill, but she and her husband are both teachers...they don't know any families, personally, who might be able to use some nice school clothes??) At that point I really wished I hadn't offered the clothes but I was somewhat flabbergasted by the whole exchange and couldn't think of a graceful way to grab my bags of clothes and say "Nevermind". I thought this was just weird. Maybe others think it's weird to offer people used kids' clothes, but in my experience, it's just what people DO. That's what my friends and family and co-workers have always done, even the ones who had money to buy whatever they needed or wanted. It's just, you know, recycling and getting good use out of stuff and being thrifty. Sheesh. Was I being totally offensive?