strange, but true
Being back home and driving from King of Prussia to Allentown, to Danville, in one day reminded me of how drastically different PA is from MO. All of the roads here are straight! They are on a grid that runs North/South and East/West. The small roads and the interstates are all perfectly (for the most part) straight and don't winds around mountains, don't snake and down, don't go up hill and down hill, don't meander, tunnel through mountains, etc. It's not like we are in rural corn field country - we have plenty of trees and it's a nice upscale suburban area, but still it's nothing like PA.
People really do say, "Mam" and "Sir" here a lot. Especially when I've been washing people's windows or moving their rocks I've come to regret that it's not my natural impulse to use those words. Not only am I not going out of my way to be extra courteous and polite, but I'm actually failing to meet the normal acceptable standards for the bear minimum of common decency. I worry that I come off as a degenerate!
Panera Bread is called "St. Louis Bread Company" here. We couldn't figure out why at first. Then we learned that, actually, "St. Louis Bread Company" is called Panera when it's not in MO, which is where the company was founded. Ah... this "national" chain that I recognized was born and raised right here in the gateway to the West.
People really do say, "Mam" and "Sir" here a lot. Especially when I've been washing people's windows or moving their rocks I've come to regret that it's not my natural impulse to use those words. Not only am I not going out of my way to be extra courteous and polite, but I'm actually failing to meet the normal acceptable standards for the bear minimum of common decency. I worry that I come off as a degenerate!
Panera Bread is called "St. Louis Bread Company" here. We couldn't figure out why at first. Then we learned that, actually, "St. Louis Bread Company" is called Panera when it's not in MO, which is where the company was founded. Ah... this "national" chain that I recognized was born and raised right here in the gateway to the West.