Posted on 01/24/2013 6:23:56 PM PST by FoxPro
Down south they call me special.
Around here they call me an idiot.
LOL
Something I noticed since moving from Maryland to Central PA a few years ago is that, very generally speaking and noting there are of course exceptions, people in Maryland (believe it or not even in Baltimore) tend to be a bit more polite and friendly than what I find here.
I notice it most while driving.
For example, I’m driving through a parking lot and stop (as I should) for pedestrians or stop when I see someone trying back out of a parking space. In MD, not always but more often than not, the pedestrian or other driver would acknowledge with a smile and little hand wave. Here in PA when I do the same thing, if the pedestrian or other driver even bothers to look at me, I rarely get the thank you smile or wave, in fact I sometimes feel like they are giving me a dirty look as in “how dare you be driving in my parking lot”.
When I lived in Baltimore the street I lived on was one way but the street I had to go down to get to my street was two-way but narrow enough with parked cars that two cars couldn’t pass each other unless one pulled over where no car was parked. More often than not, there was a sort of courtesy rule that was followed where as if you were closest to a place where you could pull over to let the other car pass, you would and the other driver nearly always gave a smile and a hand wave as they passed. Here in PA, there is a similar street I drive down on my way to work and more often than not when I pull over to let another car coming from the opposite direction pass, I don’t get any sort of acknowledgement, to the point I find it very rude.
It’s just a general observation and granted, I came across plenty of rude people in MD but on a whole it just feels a bit different up here. For instance, I’ve had more men; white and black, young and old hold a door open for me in MD than in PA. When I moved into a townhouse in Bel Air MD, several of my neighbors came over to say hello and introduce themselves, the older retired couple next door even took me out for dinner. I’ve lived in the same development here in PA for over two years now and don’t know anyone by name, and except for my neighbors downstairs who will say hello if they see me in the parking lot, nobody else even says hello to each other.
When I was a little kid we moved from Harrisburg PA where my mom grew up to MD, and I remember my mother being offended by what she considered the “over familiarity” of people in Baltimore. She thought it was rude that complete strangers would strike up conversations or ask what she thought were too “personal” questions, something like being at the checkout line at the grocery store where someone in line would comment about the pot roast she was buying and say something like “so how do you make your pot roast…my husband loves pot roast but I can’t seem to make it right…does your husband like pot roast…what about your kids, how many kids do you have?” I’m sure they weren’t trying to be rude or intrusive but just making what they thought was polite conversation.
She also thought it was terrible that kids called adults by their first names such as “Miss Linda” or “Mr. John” instead of Mr. or Mrs. Smith or referred to her has “Hon” :) .
There is IMO a perceptible difference North and South of the Mason Dixon line, although I will also say that having lived in Maryland and in the Baltimore area most of my life, I did notice a bit of a change in terms of friendliness and politeness over the years. And I will also say that having family in New Jersey shore area, I find a lot of Jerseyites friendly, abrupt perhaps but not unfriendly per se. The rudest places I’ve been to in my life so far; Philadelphia and Boston. The friendliest: South Carolina and Toronto Canada.
There is still a strong rural and Southern sentiment among people in most of Maryland, outside of Montgomery and PG Counties. For one thing, blacks and whites get along much better outside of those counties. People move and talk more slowly. They’re polite because their mamas taught them to be polite and would spank them with a wooden spoon or a switch (your choice) if they didn’t.
I think it was the French-American author Olivier Bernier, writing about early American history, who pointed out that in early, small-town America, you had to behave yourself because if you didn’t, you’d be ostracized, and there was nowhere to go. If you were a creep, everybody in a small town would know it. We have the freedom of anonymity with no need to govern our reactions in large cities and with a highly mobile culture.
Christianity and culture. I do know we have a church of some kind close at hand no matter how far out we live.
Upper Corner of Lower Alabama.
Have encountered the same situation in Texas. There is a good explanation for what causes the situation. Progressive anti-business attitudes. In liberal la la land, businesses are viewed as being the enemy. The customer does every thing they can to rip the business off and the business responds in kind. In Texas, the Deep South and any other normal areas where people are not insane, people respect businesses and businesses respect people.
“To-To, you ain’t in Kansas anymore, I’ll need to SEE that license”If it was delivered with a smile, yes.
Sorry but that is roll on the floor funny. Takes skill to turn a required policy that some people can get frustrated over into something funny. Disarming skill.
“Pay it forward”
I do that (both sides) when I can. One time a young lady ran out of gas in front of my house and I gave her what I had in the gas can, $10 for the station up the street, and a “pay it forward”.
She refused in the nicest way. I got a card a month later with $11 and a note explaining that “In my religion, debts are paid back with plus one.” Ya’ learn something new every day...
(If you were gonna ask; hindu.)
Roll Tide
That is changing. Did you know that all of Bank of America’s mortgage systems are basically run in Foxpro?
I believe that Foxpro is the greatest programming language ever written. And like the Air Forces B-52, it will be utilized by our kids and grand-kids for the next 50 years.
Just because somebody says a computer language is dead, doesn’t make it so.
If you’re under 50, there’s COBOL code still running today that is older than you are.
Since when is Huntsville, AL, the “Deep South”?
I lived in Huntsville for a while. It’s a pretty normal city. Do you consider it “Deep South”?
If Alabama ain’t Deep South, no place is!
My definition of the Deep South would be all South Eastern states with a coastline on the ocean.
Alabama is Deep South, but Huntsville can’t possibly fall into that category.
hehe
Well, there is the lowlands-uplands divide that outsiders don’t necessarily know, but I’m guessing you mean Huntsville is pretty cosmopolitan and teeming with Yankees.
Still plenty of the older South in the area though.
Huntsville is not like the rest of Alabama. Lots of folks from all over the country, and foreigners. Still, a great place to live.
For a more “Deep South” experience, get at least 2 counties away from Huntsville.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.