Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Those crazy west coasters...

My new friend, Rachael, invited me to a Beth Moore study on Esther.  It meets every Tuesday morning and child care is provided... COOL!  It really is an intense study on the book of Esther... I love it... 

Anyways...
The woman in charge got up and started us off... we were talking about mean women :)  and what we, the women in the study, think when we hear the word MANNER'S .  We all put in our thoughts about what manners are... and the last idea is, using polite, kind words like thank you and please.  The leader lady says... "I have a great story about that.  My mom just went to visit her sister on the west coast.  They went out to dinner and my mom used words like thank you and please when talking to the server.  Her sister told her that she didnt need to use those words here on the west coast....."  The lady telling us the story laughs... then says.. "you know west coasters...." all the women in the study agreed and laughed... Rachael poked me under the table laughing at me.... she was the only girl there who knew I was from the west coast :)... 


9 comments:

Rachel said...

I have a friend who teaches in NC and used to teach in Tustin. When she started teaching on the East Coast she would tell her students that they didn't need to call her maam (how do you spell that?) and what not. Another teacher overheard and told her to watch out, because parents would be furious if she didn't expect respect from her students.

Yes, apparently the west coasters are notorious throughout the country.

Ryan, Jane, Nate and Zach said...

That is an awesome story.
:)
I think a young Scott would have fit right in on the EC, I have memories of him saying "Thank you" so many times when he was little that it drove me batty!

Jennifer said...

Makes me embarrassed to call myself a Californian! Better keep your mouth shut about where you are from! Of course, I am sure they will figure it out sooner or later by the way you talk. LOL

Another side note: Ths West Coast family is trying very hard to raise our kids to say Please, Thank You, Yes Maam and Yes Sir, etc. Maybe it comes from my husband being raised by Mid-West parents, but I personally rather like it.

Aramigan said...

Well, I actually consider it to be bad manners to assume that all west coasters have bad manners. I have found while being in/living in other states that thetr are a lot of misconceptions about Californians as there are with so many other groups so I am glad I wasn't there since I probably would have gotten in some sort of heated argument with the moderator--thereby furthering the bad manner misconception.

Aramigan said...

sorry I just have to add as I am thinking about it more that mam, sir, please, thank you and even eye contact are all culturally related so to assume that because someone else is rude because they may have a cultural difference (such as not saying mam and sir) is again in my opinion bad manners (which are culturally defined). Sorry, that is my 2 cents worth.

psmith said...

I am giving that lady my favorite finger...opps wait, I mean PLEASE tell her that we say THANK YOU and other kind things at our house!!! She'll see we raised you right!

Helen said...

Wow, Stef. You really got a lot of response on this one, didn't you?

We, too, say please and thank you all the time around our house. Grandbud is the "yes ma'am, no ma'am" (correct way to spell it - I looked it up in the dictionary) around here. He's our southern gentleman.

Anonymous said...

Wow! How rude! But being raised in another country... that misconceptions is not just about the west coast. It's about all of America, and speaking from experience they too would be wrong!

Christine said...

Wow, lots of comments on manners! On a different note-would you PLEASE give me the name of the Beth Moore study/book you are reading, if you don't mind? I would like to look into it. THANK YOU! :o) (hee hee)