CH would hate Brown County.
A simple run to town guarantees you at least a dozen 5-minute conversations.
The only thing more important than my hurry is other people. They're fairly important.
Maybe that's why we're not all angry around here. We give each other the time of day.
I'm happy for you, that you live in a place that soothes your soul and appeals to your sensibilities. I don't mind visiting such places for a weekend or so. They're charming and one can wistfully imagine how nice it would be to live in such a place.
In 1990, I had reason to move to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
I figured: capitol city in a southwestern state with a big state flagship public university in its metro area. It should be a lot like my hometown. Right?
Turns out it wasn't, for a good number of reasons. One reason was the friendliness factor.
Now, Austin can be friendly in some ways. Sometimes you can just bump into somebody, hit it off and become lifetime friends. Or sometimes a set of circumstances can introduce you to somebody who you will end up sharing an adventure with over the next 48 hours, and then you'll never see them again. That's kind of fun and interesting. But it's not like the OKC.
In OKC, you don't really get that involved with anybody, but there's an ongoing banality that doesn't exist in Austin.
In the ATX, people pretty much mind their own business. It's not like you actually hate strangers, it's just that it's all so transient, that there's no point in getting to know somebody's who's going to be replaced by some other stranger next week. So you ignore the best you can. Nod when you see the same person several times and talk once in a blue moon when the sun is out, you're feeling mellow and everything's cool. Right?
Personally, I like to give a friendly nod with a baleful look in my eyes so strangers will think I've met my social obligation but they won't be inclined to engage me.
So any way, I move to OKC and everybody's friendly. You drive through a neighborhood and people wave. You're in line at the hardware store and the people in line with you will strike up a conversation.
At first I thought, now isn't this charming? The city has 600,000 people and it's just like Mayberry.
But after about 18 months, it begins to grate on you. You slip into the Homeland IGA on lunch to grab something and the clerk on checkout lane asks the person in front of you how their crepe myrtles are doing and suddenly you're stuck for twenty minutes.
I'm a laid back, easy going guy but those were the times in my life that I contemplated murder. So yeah, if I lived in Brown County it would probably be only long enough for them to transport me to death row in Huntsville.
