Posted on 01/24/2013 6:23:56 PM PST by FoxPro
I have lived in Las Vegas and Los Angeles for the past 5 years.
I drove down to Huntsville, Alabama to work on some software, with a friend of mine.
I have never been to the "deep South".
I have been here for 24 hours.
It is really a bit of a culture shock after spending a day sorting things out, here.
Everybody is "Yes Sir" and "No Sir" with people differing to you with "Am I in your way?" and "Can I help you find something?"
Well, this is exactly what happened to me today.
I sat down to get to work, on my computer and the battery in my mouse dies.
I move my mouse and the arrow is just there, not moving.
It always happens at the worst of times.
So I drive down to Kroger's grocery store, walk in, stand there, trying to figure out if I should turn left or right, in my hunt for the "Battery Center".
Well this very large man walks up to me, he is wearing a Kroger badge and below his name it says "Manager".
He intones "Can I help you?"
I said, a bit jaded "Yes, I need ONE AA battery, but I know I will have to buy a 12 pack, but that's just the way things go."
He motions me over to a check stand, grabs a 4 pack of AA batteries, tears it open, pulls out one battery, hands it to me and says "Merry Christmas."
I am stunned...
DO YOU REALLY THINK THIS WOULD EVER HAPPEN ANYWHERE IN LOS ANGELES? Really?
The guy made my day and it is a seemingly small gesture, I will never forget.
But this guy knows I will probably spend $100 or more, at this Kroger's, in the next few months, than I would have otherwise.
He knows that this small act of kindness will be recouped many times over in the near future.
This gentleman knows all about not being "Penny wise and pound foolish."
I think I will like being an Alabamian.
.
I fit right in, because I never trusted anyone to begin with.
Hell of a way to live, but to each his own, I guess.
I’ve been in Indy about a month now and still can’t quite believe how nice people are here. It’s like a different planet from Baltimore/DC.
Glad to hear it. I raised my two daughters here and find it a very nice place to live. Back in 1970 Dick Lugar spearheaded the Unigov plan which kept the city govt from being controlled by the inner city crowd.
That is the biggest reason Indy doesn’t look like Cleveland (my home town), Detroit, St. Louis, etc.
I worked with a guy whose Daughter worked for a major drug company in Indianapolis.
She said it was a cornfield with lights. I got the impression that she liked it but that was a local joke.
Indeed. Those of us who live on the coasts need to go to places like Indy to help restore our faith in humanity.
This is the company that replaced the roof for Mr. Wood.
http://holdenroofingdonates.com/
They’ve done it before & the old roof had nothing to do with the vandalism.
I’m thinking of going over there tomorrow. I didn’t see a US flag at his house so may go get one for him.
“My definition of the Deep South would be all South Eastern states with a coastline on the ocean.”
I guess that pretty much wipes out the gulf coast states.
That passage sounds like it may have been written by Guy Fridell, whose book, What is it about Virginia, became a favorite of mine during my many years as a Virginian.
About 200 miles
Generally speaking the same for me. Deep urban is usually more stressed and consequently hostile. Often the most wary/standoffish folks are in the extreme rural settings ("You ain't from around here, are ya boy?!").
For the most part you get back what you put into it.
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