It's Different on the Left Coast
Wherein Our Heroine
Is An Unscientific Experiment.
Is it them, or is it me?
The issue is this: people are
darned friendly here. Now, before anyone thinks I am rushing to dismiss the
friendliness of those in the DC area, not so. I have had many delightful
encounters with cheerful, helpful strangers in my day to day existence in the
Nation's Capitol. One such encounter with a station manager for the Union
Station Metro left me grinning all through an otherwise very trying day. She
very cheerfully pointed out to me that I had presented my Metro card twice to
the reader in a sort of "stutter," making the display read, "See station
manager." "Baby girl," she asked, smiling, "Are you trying to ride the train,
or are you trying to go to
work?"
Maybe it was being called "baby girl" by an obviously amused fellow human being,
I don't know. It did put a spring in my
step.
But back to the "other"
coast. I have been wandering around a bit, mostly in Berkeley (which probably
tells its own tale) for the last two days. Shopkeepers, waiters and one
particularly memorable flower-seller named Mahmoud have been almost uniformly
cheerful, helpful and kind to me. So this place feels friendly in a
more-than-usual way.
But my
research in this vein falls far short of scientific precision. I have my sample
size of one, and the sample itself is not its usual, serious, job-hunting self.
Nay, the sample is slightly pink from buzzing about with the top down, eager to
see new things and eager to like what it sees. In essence, the sample is on
vacation, and ready to see the good in just about
anything.
So - is it them, or
is it me? Are the people here simply friendlier than the average Easterner, or
am I priming the pump by being more relaxed, more cheerful, more ready to be
pleased?
It's an interesting
problem - and one I should pursue when the sample goes home.
Posted: Friday - April 23, 2004 at 08:58 AM
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