Letter From America: Home Away From Home
They're right neighbourly in the last good place on Earth. Ronnie Bray enthusiastically sings the praises of the good folk of Montana.
Gay and I had not lived in the Rocky Mountain Northwest for long when we discovered that we were among an extraordinary people with ways very different from those either of us was used to. We found an extraordinary level of interaction between people we met us for the first time, and an incredible willingness to help.
One of the first revelations came when we decided to buy a house in Libby, and went to our bank to arrange to pay the owner the monthly mortgage payment through a title deed company.
"Can we make a monthly standing order?"
"Where is the owner’s account."
"First Title and Deed Company."
"Oh, that’s no problem. Once a month we will make out a check and one of us will take it across the street and deposit for you!"
We were tickled and impressed.
After our first visit to the chemists, which is located, where else but in the "if-it's-made-we-stock-it" hardware store, we were on first name terms with the pharmacist, and the same held true in every place of business we visit in this most friendly of places.
Once, in the only grocery store in a radius of eighteen miles, Gay forgot her chequebook and I forgot my wallet with my debit card. The checkout operator was unfazed. "Just sign the till receipt with your name and telephone number and pay next time you are in town."
We went to our credit union branch in the supermarket. They knew us and gave us cash from our account without identification.
After we had taken a visiting friend to the airport in Spokane, we decided that we would do some shopping at a cheap grocery outlet before driving the hundred and fifty miles back home. When we arrived at the supermarket, whose policy is "pile it high, sell it cheap," we found it bolted and barred. The notice on the door told us that we were almost an hour early, so we put our seats back and took some rest.
After a short while, we noticed that someone was moving about inside, and that lights were going on. I eased myself from the rig and rattled the doors. It was half an hour to their posted opening time.
A young man, later identified as the manager, came to the doors and said that when one more staff member arrived to man the cash register, he would let us in.
In less than five minutes, he came back to the door, unlocked them and waved us in. It was twenty-five minutes before their official opening, time.
Now, we shop there every time we are in Spokane. Excellent customer service that treats people as customers, not as inconveniences, is de rigueur in this part of the world.
Life at the interpersonal level is admirable. It reminds me of my childhood in Huddersfield when everybody spoke to everyone else, and there was time to pass the time of day and exchange news, and find out how the family was getting along before social paranoia set in, and people are almost afraid to look strangers in the eye.
In the USA in general, if you catch a stranger’s eye, you get a smile and a "Hi!" in return. It makes life very pleasant.
Doctors’ receptionists are patient-oriented, pleasant, accommodating, and helpful. Shop assistants are genuinely interested and helpful and they do not talk to other shop assistants when serving customers.
Dining out is cheap and pleasant. Members of staff are friendly, and are solicitous for the comfort and satisfaction of customers.
People here are, in the main, like folks used to be in the tight knit communities that once surrounded the textile giants of the past, when people ‘neighboured,’ putting the kettle on as they entered through the back doors of friends homes without knocking – only debt collectors, telegram boys, policemen, and bum-bailiffs knocked.
When the time comes when we leave our beloved Northwest to go and dwell in the Arizona desert like the Anasazi, we shall leave with a sigh and many a backwards glance, and there will always be part of our hearts and our love floating over the last best place on earth, where hearts are free, open, and splendidly accommodating to strangers, and we heartily recommend it to anyone wanting to experience Paradise.
Copyright © 2004
Ronnie Bray
All Rights reserved
