Another cliché which appears to be false is Southern warmth and hospitality compared to Northern coldness and unfriendliness. A week earlier when I was walking through Kearny on the way to the hospital carrying a bouquet of flowers, two different [female] crossing guards called out to me asking if I was bringing them the flowers and we had brief conversations. I was also in short relaxed conversations with other customers in the various stores and eating places I went into in Kearny, a town of 40,000, about 2/3rds the size of Asheville. I don't rush up to speak to people on the streets in Manhattan but as reserved as I am, I still have talks with people there when I'm not just a pedestrian and hear and observe many more spontaneous conversations in New Jersey and New York than I do in Asheville and its surrounding area. All my walking in Asheville was downtown which is maybe why I found and saw little spontaneous social contact. But I was walking a lot in the small towns I visited and was in many dealings with many people and I found the people far less communicative and outgoing than in New Jersey and New York.
Created on ... June 14, 2003