![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Culture buzz
Dec. 7th, 2007 08:40 pmMoving from one place or another, there're always huge differences to assimilate. The way people interact, the things they care about, the things they're willing to say, or not say. The way they drive (or, for example, CANNOT DRIVE TO SAVE THEIR LIVES). I find myself running aground on them sometimes, even now, four years into my latest location.
There are also the little things to deal with, though. Things that you don't really note at first because they're not important -- they don't frustrate or cause any difficulty, they're just different -- but one day, after doing a thing without thinking for ages, out of nowhere comes the thought, hey, we didn't do things this way Back Home.
Take tonight, when I realized for the first time in four years that ATM machine etiquette is different here from the way it was in New Orleans. Back Home, if you got to the ATM machine and someone else was already using it, you stood a discreet distance away, maybe six feet or so, and pointedly kept your eyes averted as they conducted their business. Here, though, you don't even get out of your car until the person ahead of you is completely finished and walking away. NO ONE does the discreet-distance thing. It makes me wonder if I did it for a time after moving here, before my subconscious poked me in the ribs and made me stay in the car. I might have. I might have freaked a few people out by it. O people of Macon, I am heartily sorry having offended thee.
I'm thinking that the main difference between Macon and New-Orleans-That-Was is that New Orleans was a much more pedestrian-oriented city, and as often as not there wasn't a place to park, much less sit in the car and wait, within a convenient distance of your ATM machine. But I could be wrong about this! I'm kind of curious to know what your city's ATM etiquette is. Staying in the car? Standing back a couple of yards? Picking your nose and staring over people's shoulders as they type in their PINs?
There are also the little things to deal with, though. Things that you don't really note at first because they're not important -- they don't frustrate or cause any difficulty, they're just different -- but one day, after doing a thing without thinking for ages, out of nowhere comes the thought, hey, we didn't do things this way Back Home.
Take tonight, when I realized for the first time in four years that ATM machine etiquette is different here from the way it was in New Orleans. Back Home, if you got to the ATM machine and someone else was already using it, you stood a discreet distance away, maybe six feet or so, and pointedly kept your eyes averted as they conducted their business. Here, though, you don't even get out of your car until the person ahead of you is completely finished and walking away. NO ONE does the discreet-distance thing. It makes me wonder if I did it for a time after moving here, before my subconscious poked me in the ribs and made me stay in the car. I might have. I might have freaked a few people out by it. O people of Macon, I am heartily sorry having offended thee.
I'm thinking that the main difference between Macon and New-Orleans-That-Was is that New Orleans was a much more pedestrian-oriented city, and as often as not there wasn't a place to park, much less sit in the car and wait, within a convenient distance of your ATM machine. But I could be wrong about this! I'm kind of curious to know what your city's ATM etiquette is. Staying in the car? Standing back a couple of yards? Picking your nose and staring over people's shoulders as they type in their PINs?
