Most Unfriendly Part of the USA?

[Midpack]

Prompted by the earlier thread, somewhat tongue in cheek. And I've even provided a map to define regions.

 

[bbbamI]

I feel the need to post this.....

 

[Moemg]

Having lived in Northern new Jersey for many years I would bet that people would vote N.J & N.Y as the most unfriendly but they would be wrong . They may be loudmouths but they are lovable loudmouths who will spill their life history in an hour .I now live in Florida and since that has become a melting pot from everywhere I would have to vote that the most unfriendly people are all living in the north and their crankiness starts Jan.1 and sometimes goes till May.1 . I brought my fellow New Jersey residents to back this up .

 

[kumquat]

You missed an option, "Don't know, don't care".

I'll keep going to places I like.

 

[Midpack]

Having lived in Northern new Jersey for many years I would bet that people would vote N.J & N.Y as the most unfriendly but they would be wrong . They may be loudmouths but they are lovable loudmouths who will spill their life history in an hour .I now live in Florida and since that has become a melting pot from everywhere I would have to vote for Indiana & Illinois . Those people are secretive and not friendly unless you are also from their home states .

Interesting. I moved from central Florida (near Lakeland) to Indiana/Illinois (near Chicago) - and my experience was just the opposite. I could not stand Florida, but I also realize I'm in the minority...

 

[Moemg]

Interesting. I moved from central Florida (near Lakeland) to Indiana/Illinois (near Chicago) - and my experience was just the opposite. I could not stand Florida, but I also realize I'm in the minority...

Chicago is exempt . It is more the rural areas that bred unfriendly people .

 

[Amethyst]

I've lived several places along the East Coast, from NJ to FL, and I work with a high percentage of military, who tend to come from the Midwest and South. I've also lived in England. People seem pretty much the same everywhere. Most are good, doing the best they can, some are constantly trying to make it hard for the rest of us. The rest fall somewhere in between, depending on how insecure they happen to be. Anyway, that's my take on folks.

 

[aaronc879]

Chicago is exempt . It is more the rural areas that bred unfriendly people .

That's interesting. I've noticed the opposite. The bigger the city the more rude people. Small towns in the midwest have almost all nice people. The large cities attract the trouble-makers and rude people. At least that's been my experience.

 

[REWahoo]

Do these "friendly/unfriendly" threads and polls serve any purpose other than antagonizing?

 

[travelover]

Do these "friendly/unfriendly" threads and polls serve any purpose other than antagonizing?

I think it is the equivalent of two bored kids pinching each other in the back seat on a long car ride.

 

[HFWR]

Chicago is exempt . It is more the rural areas that bred unfriendly people .

I'm from rural Indiana...

Do these "friendly/unfriendly" threads and polls serve any purpose other than antagonizing?

We have termites, mosquitoes, killer bees, tarantulas, biting flies, scorpions, rattlesnakes, dust storms, hail storms, tornadic storms, hurricanes, drought, flood, pestilence, etc., but we're friendly...

 

[Cruisinthru]

I voted Northeast. I am thinking of NJ. I have made several trips to Jersey in the last decade. The people there are not friendly to strangers. I say strangers because I knew people there that were wonderful, but the people on the street were not friendly to strangers. My last trip to NJ was during the elections of 2004 and I thought I was gonna be tarred and feathered just because of my Texas accent. I tried to explain that my last name wasn't Bush, and I had never voted for one, but I was still treated very badly by several people. They made assumptions and they acted rudely toward someone they didn't know. My accent was funny, boy, like theirs are not..... Not friendly behavior! I told my husband that I was gonna stop talking until we got out of NJ.

In contrast, the people in NY could not have been nicer on any of my visits. On one visit we took my FIL who was about 92 at the time. He was very excited about the trip since he had worked in NYC during the '50 and '60's. As he crossed the street near his old office he missed a step and fell. He broke his glasses and cut his head. The people on the street from the bystanders to the cab driver could not have been more helpful. We got back to our hotel and the staff was wonderful. They found a place to get his eye glasses repaired on Sunday and employees searched their lockers for bandages. Wow, and I had heard NY'ers were rude!

 

[Amethyst]

I thought I was gonna be tarred and feathered just because of my Texas accent.

Cruisinthru, sorry you met some ignorant boors in some part of NJ who took their anger at Bush out on you. Nobody has any business making fun of a stranger's accent. I remember visiting England back in the 80's, and being verbally attacked on a train by some Brits who didn't like Ronald Reagan, and my American accent just set them off.

Either way, I think it was just the luck of the draw. Most British people were friendly and kind to me.

You could've met my NJ relatives, who would not make fun of anything until they got to know and like you...then, you'd be fair game, watch out AND they would have knocked themselves out trying to help your FIL.

(Don't some people in Texas ever make fun of strangers?)

 

[Moemg]

I'm from rural Indiana...



We have termites, mosquitoes, killer bees, tarantulas, biting flies, scorpions, rattlesnakes, dust storms, hail storms, tornadic storms, hurricanes, drought, flood, pestilence, etc., but we're friendly...

Sorry , To all I offended I was wrong . You are all friendly .

 

[unclemick]

Seattle hands down wins on grumpy - Chi town and New York City! - you can feel the love even when they are cussing each other out.

Portland so so, Denver and New Orleans were better.

heh heh heh - Kansas City - haven't made up my mind yet. Of course I'm out of date at all places except KC.

 

[Cruisinthru]

Amethyst,

You make some good points. Yes, people in Texas have been known to make fun of strangers. I personally have laughed many times at the old joke about the difference between yankees and damn yankees (damn yankees come south and don't go home), but I would never intentionally be rude to someone because they are from another area of the country. I qualified my statements with the fact that I know there are many wonderful people in the state of NJ, but I unfortunately came into contact with a few of the others. Those few helped color my opinion of the state as not being friendly.

 

[Khan]

Personally (n = 1): Northern NJ in early '70s. Was transferred to Stockton CA and had no idea how to react to friendly people.

Long ago and far away.

 

[unclemick]

My Father served a stint on Shore Patrol in New Orleans at the end of WWII.

His opinion on Texas and Brooklyn is not suitable for this forum.

heh heh heh - I enjoyed my visits in subsequent decades to both places.

 

[jambo101]

Most unfriendly place in USA? kinda hard to say if you dont know all the people,i've met friendly and unfriendly people in every part of the USA.

 

[unclemick]

Most unfriendly place in USA? kinda hard to say if you dont know all the people,i've met friendly and unfriendly people in every part of the USA.

Rush hour or not rush hour. The retired guys at the doughnut shop are relaxed and friendly.

Don't you just love ER.

heh heh heh - the ole frazzle quotient.

 

[Orchidflower]

When I spent some weeks in L.A., I was surprised more than once by the natives saying they wished they lived in Chicago (where I was from at the time) rather than L.A. And we people in Chicago thought L.A. was mecca. But they seemed so unhappy that I guess not.

 

[aaronc879]

When I spent some weeks in L.A., I was surprised more than once by the natives saying they wished they lived in Chicago (where I was from at the time) rather than L.A. And we people in Chicago thought L.A. was mecca. But they seemed so unhappy that I guess not.

My guess is most of them wouldn't last past Christmas before they were on a plane escaping the hell that is an upper midwest winter. It's now April 20th and 200 miles directly north of Chicago I will be getting an inch or 2 of snow with windchills in the low 20's tonight.

 

[haha]

When I was living in Boston I had a roomate who was an assistant professor of anthropology. He was from San José. He explained this stuff to me in a way that made total sense. He said that people are not the same everywhere; they actually differ quite a lot from one another. Some of this difference is individual, some family, some subcultural and some from the larger culture. Some groups are much more open to strangers than others. This doesn't necessarily mean that they are looking to become friends, only that they are not automatically cold with strangers.

One of his favorite things was to point out stuff at parties, such as how people stood together in groups. Most ethnic easterners other than Irish are bunched together practically touching, or in fact often taking hold of one another. Westerners were more likely to space themselves out in kind of a loose semi-circle.

I tend to be conscious of these things, and to interpret them as meaningful but not as simple indicators of a single trait such as "friendliness". This kind of knowledge can also be used deliberately as anyone who has survived as a sales professional knows in his/her bones.

I like to have fun with this stuff in some moods. Once a car salesman was giving me the hearty good ol' boy treatment as we were walking along in the lot. I put my arm around his shoulder and said "I am so happy to find you!" He practically fell over laughing.

ha

 

[CuppaJoe]

.... It's now April 20th and 200 miles directly north of Chicago I will be getting an inch or 2 of snow with windchills in the low 20's tonight.

Could you overnight some of that white stuff; low 20's sounds so refreshing. We're suffering a heat wave here without air conditioning. Hope you take winter vacations.

 

[aaronc879]

Could you overnight some of that white stuff; low 20's sounds so refreshing. We're suffering a heat wave here without air conditioning. Hope you take winter vacations.

In July and August when it get 90 degrees with high humidity I don't even turn on the fan let alone the AC. I don't mind the heat but the cold is horrible. I know some [-]wierd[/-] people are just the opposite.

I'll send you some white stuff if you send me some sun. When I saw the sun in march I barely knew what it was after not seeing it since early november.