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I recently moved to Utah from Maryland (THE Freak state). Meanest? Maryland was mean: people with pitbulls, people looking at you like they hoped to mug you, liberals...you know, human flotsam and jetsam. In the month I have been in Utah I have not met one mean person or seen one mean act. Everyone says hello, clerks are helpful beyond the call of duty and everyone has been cordial and helpful. Have I died and gone to Heaven?????

A couple of anecdotes--

When I was in Silver Spring, Md., a few years ago, I tried to ask passersby for directions to a certain street, but got responses such as, "get away from me!" I finally had to find the street on my own.

In Cedar City, Utah, I hit a patch of snow while trying to parallel park and wound up skidding so that I was perpendicular to the street, then I couldn't drive away because my wheels were stuck in the snow. A group of teenagers suddenly appeared and pulled my car out. I figured that's one of the ways in which "red" states differ from "blue" states.

” When I was in Silver Spring, Md., a few years ago, I tried to ask passersby for directions to a certain street, but got responses such as, “get away from me!” I finally had to find the street on my own. “

That was a nice place to live 30-40 years ago.

In Cedar City, Utah, I hit a patch of snow while trying to parallel park and wound up skidding so that I was perpendicular to the street, then I couldn't drive away because my wheels were stuck in the snow. A group of teenagers suddenly appeared and pulled my car out.

I had a similar experience in East Tennessee...I had pulled off the road with a flat tire, and was in the middle of changing it when a group of teen-agers pulled up; offering to help us with the flat. Since I was nearly done; I declined, and they drove off. My wife (a native but reformed New Englander) was stunned to see teen-agers offering to help...she thought they were going to carjack us. I smiled..."welcome to Tennessee...welcome to the United States."