I tend to think of myself as a city girl. Sure, my city only has a population of roughly 41,000 according to the 2009 census but compared to all the surrounding towns, we're big. My hubs comes from a town of population 13. OK, OK, that's 1300 but you get what I'm saying. 13, 1300, it's all the same.
I never knew how neighborly people could be until I met my husband. Everyone knows everyone. A few weeks back we were visiting the in-laws in my husband's hometown. As we were leaving town, we passed a group of teens playing basketball. I spotted them a ways back & stereotyped them right away. Saggy pants, crooked hats. Have a visual yet? No good, trouble makers. However, right when we get ready to pass, they all stop & wave. Yes, in a small town everyone waves. When I say everyone, I mean it. If you pass someone going down the road, you wave. Even if it's just "the one finger off the steering wheel", you wave. But coming from teens, I was just stunned. Like a deer in headlights. You know how you're not sure if someone is talking to you from across the room & you gesture "who me?". Yeah, that's totally what I did. I turned to look at my husband, as if to say, what do I do? And then turned back too late. We'd already passed. My hubby couldn't quit cracking jokes. Sue me. I'm not used to that. If we'd of passed them where we live now, they'd of walked right out in front of us just daring us to hit them. Then flipped us the bird while smirking.
Seriously though, why would they wave? Not many people in my city do. Perfect example. Last night my hubby & I decide to have a few glasses of wine w/dinner (of course that's a whole other story). We're laughing & joking when the neighbor mowing outside caught my attention. We both comment that it looks like it's going to storm. So my husband gets up to take the dog out for her nightly bathroom visit (she won't go out if it's raining). He comes back in & says that the neighbor completely ignored him when he waved. I joked that my hubby must of had too many glasses of wine & forgot what town he was in. What did he expect, I asked? He said he expected a friendly wave. And that he knows the neighbor wasn't too busy push mowing his 2 foot by 2 foot level lawn w/a self propelled mower to lift one hand & wave. Matter of fact the next time he'd just walk himself & the dog over & shake hands w/the guy. That'd teach him to ignore him!!!
It's so sad that we can't just be neighborly anymore. Some days it just feels like a dog eat dog world. And sadly, the small towns like the one my hubby grew up in are dying off quickly......
This is a funny story, Karla. When we came back to Quincy last year, LP and I would take a lot of walks together. Coming from NYC we were accustomed to walking everywhere so that's what we did. I just hate that there are so few sidewalks in this town (but that's another story). Anyway, people were so friendly and neighborly to us as we walked, day after day, different people all waving or saying hello. Finally, LP looks at me one afternoon and says, "Mommy, you know EVERYBODY in this city". It's so funny that your take on Quincy is that it's not-so-neighborly and our take is that it's sometimes more neighborly than we keep-to-ourselves New Yorkers are prepared for. Just made me chuckle. Mike still doesn't know how to handle it. I'm not sure the Native New Yorker will ever really be comfortable with that level of friendliness among strangers.
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