6 Temmuz 2008 Pazar

Me And The Old Guy

This is a conversation between me and the old guy lives next door.
-Hello
-Hello.
- Hi, I live next to you, and I just wanted to stop by and say Hi to you.
- (No reaction from the old guy)
- You may want to know who we are, what we do and so on. I decided to introduce myself and know more about you.
- I don’t care who lives next to me.
( An awkward silence for a minute, I was kind of shocked with this answer, and was about to leave. Then, he starts talking about who lived in our house, in the other houses and said ‘welcome to the neighborhood’ that made me comfortable. Our conversation continues. )
- We have been living here since 1968. Roads were not even paved.
- Really. How about your children?
- We have raised four children here. They all live in New Jersey.
- How old are you?
- I am 82 years old, I got retired when I was 66. I was a judge at the New Jersey Supreme Court.
- Really. My grandpa was 82 when he passes away. (I know this was something mean to say.)
- I guess you are still driving?
- Yes, I am.
- I think you guys always do exercise, and sports. That’s why you are still energetic.
- That might be true.
- My grandpa was a farmer, he worked really hard.
-I see.
(Conversation lasted almost ten minutes. I helped him while he was trying to water the flowers. Then, I asked to leave and he told me that: ‘In any emergency, come an knock on my door. )
This was a good experience for me, I just wanted to share that with you.

4 yorum:

e.d. dedi ki...

greetings from germany ;)
--

people in US generally look like ignorant. sometimes they do not want to communicate with the others except when they have to.

but once they see that you are a good person, then they may behave you so nice that you can find this attention very surprising.

i think you had this experience with that old guy :)

Adsız dedi ki...

galiba bu sadece amerika için geçerli değil, TR'de de çok sık rastlanan bir durum; yeni bir ortama girdiğinde,yeni bir okula başladığında, kısacası "yeni" nin olduğu heryerde...bunun temelinde genel olarak insanların birbirine karşı duyduğu güvensizlik yatıyor bence ama konuşmasanız bile ufak bir tebessüm bile aradaki soguklugu kırmaya yetiyor diye düşünüyorum.

bu arada blogunuzu uzun süredir takip ediyorum ama bugün yorum bırakma fırsatı buldum.

Sevgiler...
Ahsen Aslan

ya/sin dedi ki...

It looks like I can be good with them :p
I don't know why but I sometimes feel much better and relaxed by being ignorant like that. Surely, I don't want to say that this would be better for everyone, but I think you do it well as a Turkish person who is from another culture comparing to the US.

Good job

Adsız dedi ki...

I think the self-interst relationships between the U.S people caused this 'cold' conversation. That's some kinda raising style of them.