Tuesday, September 15, 2009

"Good Morning"

When I was walking around Clumber park I felt something was wrong. It took a while to work out what it was but I eventually twigged that rather a lot of people were saying hello.

Now this sometimes happens at bird reserves but mostly people in the South East studiously ignore you. So you can imagine I was a bit disconcerted as a bunch of Northerners (I'm sure they were midlanders but they sounded "funny" so we'll call them Northerners) say good morning every five seconds.

I'm not saying its a bad thing just that if you try it down here people will assume there is something a little bit odd about you.

Curiously this happened more at Clumber than anywhere else, I'm not sure if there is something in that.

8 comments:

Liz said...

What can I say? We're friendly oop 'ere.

I can smile or say hello to randoms in the street, just walking home last night I smiled at a guy walking a dog and I wasn't even close to my house and then a man on a bike waiting to cross the road closer to home.

When I go birding with David of BGB we often say hello to dog walkers... I've chatted happily to people at the bus stop, it means nothing and makes your day knowing people are so friendly.

I always joke to my boyfriend because he can't ever talk on a bus... It's the 'London thing' where no one makes eye contact or talks on the buses/tube. (he's from London - Portobello btw)

oldcrow61 said...

The same thing happens here, we chat to anyone we come across or at the very least say hello.

avalon said...

Much like cornwall people stop to have a chat and not just a good morning, i will be going out in a soon to "buy locally" (previous post) and i will probably be out for nearly an hour by the time i've talked to everyone, its great and it makes peoples day when you make time to for a little chat. Give it a go pete!!! you may get some strange looks though up you way. LOL

holdingmoments said...

It's always good to say a 'hello' with a smile when out. I do get some strange looks at times though lol

ShySongbird said...

Good afternoon Pete ;)

This is a very good point and something I quite often think about. When on country walks just about everyone I meet will smile and say hello but if I was to meet the same people in the High Street they wouldn't even look and to be honest I probably wouldn't think of it myself. I have noticed if I do smile at someone in the street people often just look away, surely a smile costs nothing?

Tricia Ryder said...

I believe it's more county-specific rather than the South East generally. In Surrey mostly folks are unresponsive to a casual smile and "hello" but down in Sussex, particularly in the villages and countryside generally, the expectation is that a "hello" or "good day" in the norm.

But in either case, in a town, no-one would smile or greet a stranger!

But, as SS says, a smile costs nothing!!

Dorothea said...

Round my way it's more or less Inner City and whoever's out with dogs always says hello and chats, but strangely, most of us often don't seem able to recognise each other without that friendly canine assistance. Funny old world eh.

Snowbabies said...

Us northerners r very friendly people n as my mum use to say manners cost nothing so use them please :o)
When out with Lucy for walkies all the other dog walkers will smile n say hello n sometimes have general chat.
But when u go birding that is a different matter, people tend to snuff u but me being me always says hello even if I don't get a reply or a smile back :o)
Debbie

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