I have had several people recently attribute my friendliness and niceness to the fact that I am from Alaabama. Does that mean that if I were from another state I would not have been as nice? First of all, I grew up moving all over the place, my family just ended up in Alabama, and second, I feel that I formed my friendliness and niceness over the years partially from the example my parents showed me, partially from the person I am inherently, and partially from the experiences I had growing up, only a bit of which can be attributed to living some of my years in Alabama and other places south of the Mason-Dixon line (though this is the first time I have lived in real "Yankee" territory, as friends of mine would call it). I think you can attribute some of my lack of suspicion to the fact that I grew up in suburban, safe areas, but I don't know that my friendliness can have the same reasoning behind it. Honestly, I feel it is more a negative connotation to people growing up in the North - I hope that they can defy this stereotype and be friendly no matter where they happen to be from!
posted by Shoshana @ 12:10 PM
2 Comments:
Yes, being from a smaller city and being from the South definitely contributes to niceness. It's not so much that New Yorkers, say, aren't nice, but they're like sabra fruit or M&Ms -- hard on the outside, soft on the inside. You have to be hard in NY or you'll get chewed up and spit out. That isn't the case in other places, so you're freer to express your niceness.
Debbie -
I don't agree that you have to be tough in New York. I have always found that even the toughest people can usually be softened up pretty easily when you give them nothing but sweetness from yourself. Attitude is usually reflected right back to you.
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