"Canuck57" wrote in
news:RIklk.54512$nD.20516@pd7urf1no:

Just started working in a downtown environment for the first time,
what a rat race. People are not friendly, they just want one step
ahead of you and it seems to make their shallow day. And their faces
are blank and expressionless. I am lucky, will retire in a few more
years. That is not life.


The people in the city are just acting like the corporation they work
for. It rubs off, the same reason the bureaucrats at the tax office are
such ****s. That rubs off, too.

So, we become a nation (or nations) of corporate rats who only care
about ME. Just watch rec.boats for a few weeks and you can see its
effects right here.

People from far away are quite incredulous when our little group of
locals hauls it all out on the docks and starts steaming 200 pounds of
oysters or crab or some other seafood. The look on their faces when
these complete, utter strangers that "talk funny" in Charleston brogue
tell them welcome and to come join us for Dock Dinner and libations into
the night, the crabs long since consumed and new friends from exotic
places sitting on someone's deck trying to figure out why the boat is
swaying around in perfectly flat water...(c;

I remember an outing not long ago when we "hooked" a Scottish couple
working their way down the coast towards the Canal Zone. They ate a
good plateful then he excused himself as he had to "do something
important on my boat, but I'll be back." Off he went and came back in
about 30 minutes toting the biggest bottle of the FINEST single malt
Scotch I had ever tasted! "My brother makes this in the family business
that's been going over 500 years.", he told us. You couldn't buy it
here. Some liquids smuggled into the country would be classified as
weapons of mass destruction. Oh, what a fine Scotch it was!....traded
with the Scot for some Charleston seafood...(c; I fell out of the
forward V-berth still reeling the next morning....What a great party and
only TWO fell off the dock into the river, a very safe night, indeed, by
our usual 7-10 dunkings standards.

Single Malt Scotch can sure make a floating dock complex very quiet the
following morning....(c; The Scots were late leaving and promised to
return as they had a wonderful time, too. They told us we were the
friendliest bunch of boat people they ever encountered.....(c;

.....It's not about a bunch of snotty old hermits bitching and shaking
their fists....