Man, isn't that the truth. It seems as though what I used to refer to as "the redneck belt" has splintered and was sprinkled all over, a little here and there. It's like a giant social experiment to see if hate and love can be neighbors.
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Are country people nicer?
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Man, isn't that the truth. It seems as though what I used to refer to as "the redneck belt" has splintered and was sprinkled all over, a little here and there. It's like a giant social experiment to see if hate and love can be neighbors.
I find nice people all over. Location of the niceness only seems to be relevant to my own attitude at the time.
I fully understand. I'm not going to name the town I'm speaking of at this moment, but there is a town in central Illinois which I could not wait to get out of as soon as I could. I have never felt more like I was in a bad movie. Literally every inhabitant turned offer a hateful glare at my out-of-town car and the long-hair who was driving it. I mean, wrenched-up-face type of hate. I really thought we weren't going to make it out of there. Everybody I knew who'd been there had the same experience in that town. And I'm from the country, myself. I can't get my head around it. But there you have it. One gas station owner told us they should lock us up and throw away the key.
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I've met ******** in the city
I've met ******** in the country
Country people want to know why your in their area.
The generally know who belongs there and who is an outsider.
Most are polite about it.
Some aren't.
I've been chased by a angry man wielding a claw hammer for cutting thru his property.
Just don't trespass and you'll be fine
I've met ******** in the country
Country people want to know why your in their area.
The generally know who belongs there and who is an outsider.
Most are polite about it.
Some aren't.
I've been chased by a angry man wielding a claw hammer for cutting thru his property.
Just don't trespass and you'll be fine
If you pass 500 people on your morning walk, it's not practical to greet them all. That's how it is in cities.
Hey, your beard resembles that remark!
Now to answer the OP question: yer fn right we are biatch.
Truly though, you can't go into the store here without everybody saying hi as if we were long lost friends. I don't even lock doors in the day unless I leave town. My neighbor cuts our 10% adjoining lawn when she cuts hers and I do the same. She plants flowers in a large planter in our yard every year.
We have to lock our doors in the day here at this time of year though or you come home to a box of enormous zucchinis inside your door. But it is in vain because they just leave them outside if you lock. TOMATOES! I ONLY WANT YOUR TOMATOES DAMMIT! KEEP YER STINKIN ZUCCHINIS!
And then they won't take my over-abundance of apples. Cretins.
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Come on, zucchini is good.
By the way this is the forst time I've heard the word zucchini. I didn't know a word existed for zucchini.
By the way this is the forst time I've heard the word zucchini. I didn't know a word existed for zucchini.
Zucchini is the chameleon of squash. It had no flavor of its own and merely mimics whatever it is added too. Insipid mush.Come on, zucchini is good.
By the way this is the forst time I've heard the word zucchini. I didn't know a word existed for zucchini.
I like it just boiled next to my meat.
I just like zucchini, it's also got a huge place in the Turkish kitchen.
My brother hates it though so I get your point too.
Nice people are nice, regardless of whether they live in a city or in the country. Mean people are mean, regardless of whether they live in a city or in the country.
^^^ This X's 100!
Country folk have more of a tendency to look after their own well being since calling the sheriff may easily result in a 3 to 4 hour wait if something is going wrong. The initial greeting of "hello, good to see ya!" is quickly followed up by queries such as; "I haven't seen you around here before, where are you from? Where are you staying? Who are you visiting? Who are you friends with/related to? Why are you visiting them? etc. etc. etc. Phone calls may be made to verify the information. Country people are serious business.
We sho is. Y'all should come up hyar canoein real soon. Bring yer flat top and we'll jam with yah on our banjos. Might even have a piggy hunt in the bush
Really? I doubt there is a town in Central Illinois where I have not at least passed through. You managed to find one where "literally every inhabitant" looked at you with hatred because of your car or your hair? I call BS.
slobake
resident ... something
It is easy to spend a lifetime and not know your neighbors here in San Francisco. You can come and go and no one will give you a second look unless you block their driveway.
Pain in the patchoucie that I am that wasn't good enough for me. I have lived in my current house longer than I have lived anywhere else. That has given me the opportunity to know my neighbors. I have worked at creating a little community here on my block. Ice cream socials, holiday get toghethers, dinners, hospital visits and just looking out for each other. Most people here really like it and seem hungry for community. A few want no part of it.
It has really made a difference. It not Mayberry but more like a cross cultural co-op. There block is made up of people from various countries and cultures with lots of different persuasions. I like it.
We were going to shut down the street and have a block party this year but we started too late dealing with the San Francisco bureaucracy. We are shooting for next year. There are three people who play in bands on my block, it should be fun.
I don't know if we are less nice than country people but I like my neighbors. San Francisco people are typical urbanites. Rush, rush, rush. Not as intense as New York or London but I watch them every morning rushing to get a seat on mass transit. It is okay to cut in front of someone as long as you don't make eye contact. The mixture of culture here makes it interesting sometimes. Personal space varies from country to country so do driving styles.
Pain in the patchoucie that I am that wasn't good enough for me. I have lived in my current house longer than I have lived anywhere else. That has given me the opportunity to know my neighbors. I have worked at creating a little community here on my block. Ice cream socials, holiday get toghethers, dinners, hospital visits and just looking out for each other. Most people here really like it and seem hungry for community. A few want no part of it.
It has really made a difference. It not Mayberry but more like a cross cultural co-op. There block is made up of people from various countries and cultures with lots of different persuasions. I like it.
We were going to shut down the street and have a block party this year but we started too late dealing with the San Francisco bureaucracy. We are shooting for next year. There are three people who play in bands on my block, it should be fun.
I don't know if we are less nice than country people but I like my neighbors. San Francisco people are typical urbanites. Rush, rush, rush. Not as intense as New York or London but I watch them every morning rushing to get a seat on mass transit. It is okay to cut in front of someone as long as you don't make eye contact. The mixture of culture here makes it interesting sometimes. Personal space varies from country to country so do driving styles.
The one and only time I saw a cross burning was driving through Martinsville on the way from Bloomington up to Indy one night in the late 1980s.
I was born in New Haven, we moved to Houston when I was 4 or 5, lived in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico for a year, then to Austin; also spent a few years in Denton, and three awful years in Berkeley trying to be a grad student. Also spent several years off-and-on in the country between Bastrop and Elgin in TX; part of a "free school"/commune thingie (yes, it was the late 60's!).
The folks who started it did a few smart things, like hiring relatives of the county sheriff to pour concrete for our bridge. We were, however, something very different- a buncha longhairs of all ages doing god-knows-what in the woods. Some of our various neighbors would come out to visit, and we got to know some of them fairly well. We had white neighbors and black neighbors, and some of each would come by- but never at the same time. So we visited bars on both sides of the tracks (literally) in Bastrop, we were guests of the wonderfully named Rev. Head in Elgin, we went to the rodeo with Bobby Brown (not, so far as I know, related to Zappa's potato-headed protagonist) and got chased out ("We don't 'low no hippies here! Ya'll just hook 'em on out a'hee-ya!" This command is surprisingly effective when given by 40-odd cowboys fiddling with their ropes... Bobby went back later that night and overturned their outhouse, country-boy revenge. Other days, BJ would drive in with a cooler of Pearl and a few watermelons; NOTHING will make you pee more copiously than eating watermelon and drinking beer all afternoon!
Then again, there was the night when Dave L., awakened by his wife, tiptoed out off-trail to discover several gentlemen sneaking up the road, rifles in hand; for lack of a better idea, he snuck up behind them and loudly cleared his throat- they almost jumped outa their skins, and departed hastily. And of course, the frequent visits, at tree-top level, of helicopters from Camp Swift- no doubt hoping to see some a' them nekkid hippy chicks. And the three dirtbike-riding jerks that yours truly (with a small tree over his shoulder) had to run off the property
So which would I prefer? I don't think there's any pat answer now, if there ever was- everybody's old-fangled ways are dissolving, for better and worse, here in the USA. There's no John-Denver-kinda "country" to run away to (unless you're wealthy) anymore, is there? And then there's Detroit... I will say that the place with the most wack-jobs per block was undoubtedly Berkeley, CA. Also the most flagrant a-holes imaginable, a veritable stew-pot of all the a-holes of the world! Or so at least it seemed at the time. But I'd encourage anyone to experience the opposite of whatever it is you're used to, even if it's just the other side of town. Actually, in most cities (here in Madison, WI is a good example), the "other side of town" is probably much further away, in many ways, for us average-white-folks types. So your greatest adventure may be only a bus-ride away...
The folks who started it did a few smart things, like hiring relatives of the county sheriff to pour concrete for our bridge. We were, however, something very different- a buncha longhairs of all ages doing god-knows-what in the woods. Some of our various neighbors would come out to visit, and we got to know some of them fairly well. We had white neighbors and black neighbors, and some of each would come by- but never at the same time. So we visited bars on both sides of the tracks (literally) in Bastrop, we were guests of the wonderfully named Rev. Head in Elgin, we went to the rodeo with Bobby Brown (not, so far as I know, related to Zappa's potato-headed protagonist) and got chased out ("We don't 'low no hippies here! Ya'll just hook 'em on out a'hee-ya!" This command is surprisingly effective when given by 40-odd cowboys fiddling with their ropes... Bobby went back later that night and overturned their outhouse, country-boy revenge. Other days, BJ would drive in with a cooler of Pearl and a few watermelons; NOTHING will make you pee more copiously than eating watermelon and drinking beer all afternoon!
Then again, there was the night when Dave L., awakened by his wife, tiptoed out off-trail to discover several gentlemen sneaking up the road, rifles in hand; for lack of a better idea, he snuck up behind them and loudly cleared his throat- they almost jumped outa their skins, and departed hastily. And of course, the frequent visits, at tree-top level, of helicopters from Camp Swift- no doubt hoping to see some a' them nekkid hippy chicks. And the three dirtbike-riding jerks that yours truly (with a small tree over his shoulder) had to run off the property
So which would I prefer? I don't think there's any pat answer now, if there ever was- everybody's old-fangled ways are dissolving, for better and worse, here in the USA. There's no John-Denver-kinda "country" to run away to (unless you're wealthy) anymore, is there? And then there's Detroit... I will say that the place with the most wack-jobs per block was undoubtedly Berkeley, CA. Also the most flagrant a-holes imaginable, a veritable stew-pot of all the a-holes of the world! Or so at least it seemed at the time. But I'd encourage anyone to experience the opposite of whatever it is you're used to, even if it's just the other side of town. Actually, in most cities (here in Madison, WI is a good example), the "other side of town" is probably much further away, in many ways, for us average-white-folks types. So your greatest adventure may be only a bus-ride away...
