The folks in the Pacific Northwest are like any others - treat them like you
want to be treated, and you'll get along just fine. Living in NE Tacoma for
3 years, we found the "locals" all to be as nice or better than we've seen
anywhere in the USA - and we all laughed at the tongue-in-cheek comments
about immigrants from other states.
There was always the unwritten law though that insisted that "it rains all
the time" in Seattle, to discourage too much of an inclination to attract
newcomers. In actuality, New York City gets more rainfall every year,
although over less days (average). What people don't realize is that
Washington has not only high desert that requires irrigation to produce
crops, but also has desert and rain forest conditions on the Olympic
peninsula. The neat part is that most years, there are flowers and green
grass, and little snow to bother with for any long periods.
Now if you want a bit of snobbery (flame suit on), take a good look at the
old New England states, where if you didn't get your feet wet while climbing
off the Mayflower, you are just a "newbie".
Werner
----- Original Message -----
From: "Zoltan Finks" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Mercedes Discussion List" <mercedes@okiebenz.com>
Sent: Wednesday, January 03, 2007 1:36 PM
Subject: Re: [MBZ] Washington State (was: rear exhaust hanger question)
Man, the general concensus seems to be that the Pac. NW consists of a
majority of wierdos. Growing up in AZ, there was a joke that California
was
"the land of the fruits and nuts." Maybe all the Californians moved north
and all the Mexicans have moved to their north as well.
And this notion of organized resistance and protests, etc. to people
moving
in and "californicating" Washinton - wow. I bet the majority of these
protesters would consider the same type of protesting against foreign
immigration to be one of the cardinal sins.
Whatever, it won't be the first time I've felt the "you ain't from around
here" syndrome (having moved from Tucson to a relatively small town in
Minnesota - with a bald head at the time).
Actually, when we were checking out our probable new town Bainbridge
Island,
we were very surprised that we didn't run into any of the sort of
resistance
I'm hearing of. People seemed pretty genuine and welcoming even when they
heard we're moving there. Maybe they've got their own version of
"Minnesota
Nice" (which, we've found, is skin-deep - be nice face to face, and thus
gather a bunch of information to be used in gossip sessons later).
Brian
