Itโs not a south v. west thing, itโs a city thing. Thatโs why New Yorkers are the purest version of this. And itโs why I get both sides.
I grew up in a small town in Northern California, and it was proud of all the small town things โย โyou can leave your door unlockedโ and all that. I got a job for a while as a bank teller, and this coworker of mine had moved there from New York.
I liked him (I tend to get along with folks) but a lot of people thought he was rude.ย โshortโย โimpatientโ evenย โbruskโ were some descriptions of him, not just from our coworkers, but from the bank customers too. They complained because he always rushed them, never wanted to make small talk, etc.
One day I was working next to him, and I heard him verbally pushing yet another customer along, just racing him through the transaction against his will, and I thought, Iโm gonna say something to him about it.
As soon as the customer left though, before I could say anything, my coworker goesย โdamn I hate people like that, get toย the front of the line and want to tell me their whole life story. So RUDE!โ
So I say something like, how is he the one that was rude to you?
And goes, like he canโt believe how stupid Iโm being,ย โ not to me, to all those people in line behind himย that want to finish up here and get on with the rest of their day! Youโre at the bank, you know why youโre here, you step up, you do a polite greeting and get the fuck down to business. Everybody has shit to do, and they canโt do it until you shut up about your life story that zero people drove down here to listen to. Itโs so selfish! I canโt stand people like thatโ
ย
Since then, Iโve lived in San Francisco, and L.A., and Montgomery Alabama, and Germany and Portland and Oakland and a bunch of little ass towns like Suisun Ca, and Kenwood and all kinds of places, Santa Cruz and Rohnert Park. And Iโve thought about the thing that guy started me noticing.
Itโs true. The closer in to a city (and the larger the city) the more the concept of polite changes fromย โhow you are effecting the person you are communicating withโ toย โhow you are effecting the people packed in around youโ
In Oakland there are like, zero grocery stores (Oakland is literally documented as aย โfood desertโ) and so the best grocery store in Berkeley is also a favorite grocery store of Oakland residents and it isโฆ full.
Youโll spend a full 30 minutes in the snake of cars circling around in the parking lot waiting for somebody to finish shopping and leave so a parking spot opens up. Once inside, itโs more of the same. Shopping carts are cart-front to ass cheek. You literally canโt reach onto a shelf for a box of cereal without waiting for somebody to give you a break in traffic. Sometimes you get stuck standing in a single spot for several minutes, boxed in on all sides.ย Iโve only been twice, and I swear to all holy gods that if I saw two people trying to catch up on chit chat while we all tried to maneuver around them, I would been reaching for my murdering stick. Itโs called skype motherfuckers, go the fuck home and talk to each other, jfc, the rest of us are trying to make a deadline for some other shit we gotta get done today.
Now, going back home, to small town Nor Cal, yeah, I donโt want to be rude, Iโm gonna stop and say hi, Iโm gonna ask about your family, Iโm gonna rack my brain and remember that you had a sick cat or a trip you were trying to take or an interest in boats, and Iโm gonna ask about that shit, fuck yeah tell me about how the tomatoes are coming in this year, I hear the birds are worse than ever.
Anyway, city folk ainโt rude, they just polite different; suitable for city life.
annaxmalina
turnnoffyourmind
baratheonpilled
yousharknotpass
