Demographics

I agree with some of that Timex, however, I have been places where I was treated really well. My last vacation to Brown County and Little Nashville was great! People were friendly and atmosphere was nice! However, at the Edinburg Outlet Mall people seemed to go out of their way to be rude! Tennessee and South Carolina always treated me kind also. Other places had a "Here's your coat, what's your hurry, and don't forget the tip!" type of attitude.

I've found that almost always, the farther apart the people are in an area, the more pleasant they are to strangers. I have come across some nice folks in big cities, too, but for the most part, the smaller the local populations, the friendlier the people are.

My first trip to western North Dakota was an example. I had researched it as best I could beforehand, back in the days before the internet, and had discovered when I arrived that much of the public ground I had read about and counted on was inaccessible without trespassing on some private to get to it.

After driving around half a day and finding little public ground that actually had road frontage,I stopped by the local pub in the tiny county seat (pop., 39) for a sandwich and a beer. The bartender/cook was the only other person in the place, and we talked a bit. He offered to let me sleep on the couch in his attached home, since he figured it would be cold camping in my van that night (it wasn't, the van was insulated and I had a real good bag and everything I needed to be perfectly comfy). I declined the offer, but thanked him for it.

About then a dusty cowboy came in for a sandwich and a drink, and the bartender told him of my disappointment in finding easily accessed public ground. The cowboy said, "Well, we'd hate to have you come all the way out here and leave the area disappointed. Why don't you come over and hunt on one of my ranches. There's one just a few miles from here. I'll call the foremen and let him know you're coming." That turned out to be the start of a friendship and hunter-landowner relationship that lasted nearly twenty years. That "cowpoke" was one of the bigger ranchers in the county, with three ranches, and you'd never have guessed that he wasn't just another hand working from paycheck to paycheck. The county had 164 residents, total, at the time. I must have met half of them during my years of visiting out there, and darn near all of them were mighty nice people. I miss the people there almost as much as the badlands and the lonesome prairie.

We are hospitable to strangers around here, and tend to be helpful if we can, but the folks out there seem to take it to another level. They make you feel like some long-lost cousin, once you've exchanged a few words. That ranch foreman also extended the offer of his couch in the trailer that served as his family's home on that nearby ranch. I mean, I'd take time to give a stranger directions, advice, maybe a lift if their vehicle was giving them trouble, but I don't know many folks here in friendly Indiana who would offer some stranger their couch in their family home, except maybe under dire need. Two of the first three people I met out there did, and the third let me hunt his ranch.