A Clash of Cultures

Coming from a rural area in Western Montana to visit my daughter and her family, I experienced a cultural crisis. I was informed that in walking the dog, I should take a plastic bag to scoop the poop. Heck, where I come from, we just leave the cow pies in the pasture for fertilization. I started cramming the bag in my pocket out of sight. When I got some strange looks, I displayed it more prominently, so other dog walkers could see I had good intentions. I might be an alien but I was a friendly one.

I just assumed that people would meet and greet, when dog walking, to engage in some friendly banter. Not so! Even the dogs seemed outright hostile to one another. I tried saying hello but people would walk right past me as though I didn’t exist. I would flash my most engaging smile but they would stare at me as though I were from another planet and maybe they were right.

Back home when we meet someone, even if we don’t know them; we kid and joke as if they were family. That doesn’t work here; no sir! People hang on to their wallets lest you might be a mugger disguised behind a smiling face.

Truly, there IS no place like home. I fear these people are so brain washed by their urban culture that they actually think that their aloof impersonality is normal. Come to Montana and experience a new normal.