In the “old” days we seemed to live in a kinder gentler environment. People were civil to each other even when they didn’t necessarily care for each other.
I grew up in North Carolina where hospitality is a trait handed down from generation to generation and considered extremely important. We didn’t have a who’s who list in our communities but you could dam well ask anyone about hospitality and get an earful about a certain person who shouldn’t live in the south or call themselves southerners cause they don’t even have enough sense to be hospitable. I guess you could say it was so deeply ingrained that when someone was not hospitable, it was considered almost an unforgivable act. “Of course he has killed a couple of people but you can always count on him offering you a cup of coffee or a drink of white lightning if you stop by his place”.
A sad theme in the Appalachians is the outsiders, people from other parts moving in and weakening the hospitality strain. Those dam carpetbaggers from New York and New Jersey buying up property and posting “no trespassing” signs all over the good hunting and fishing areas. People there will welcome outsiders but will take a long time to measure them up before relaxing and accepting them. Even a dam Yankee is welcomed if he has the sense to learn and practice hospitality.
I recall going on a loafing trip with my Daddy a long time ago. We stopped up at Quebec at the top of the hill where his brother Spurgeon lived. We were welcomed into the house and offered a chair to sit in. My Daddy talked to his brother a while and finally after long enough he turned to me and said, “We have to be getting the hell out of here” and promptly got up and left. His brother followed to the front yard saying stuff like come back again and see us. Daddy angrily got in his truck and was turning around even while I was trying to get in the front seat. We spun out of Spurgeon’s yard and onto highway 64 with the tires still spinning. Daddy was red in the face and sputtering things like gdam crazy ignorant fools. They don’t have enough sense to offer a man a drink of water or coffee. Dam crazy %^&*&* *&*^%$$ idiots.
Well he calmed down a little and we pulled off down the road a bit at the cold water spring where a pipe was stuck in the mountain and ice cold water spurted forth. Daddy took a coke can from under the seat and we used that to drink a couple of cans of the icy delicious mountain water. On out the road we turned down a gravel road about a mile and pulled into my Aunt Frances’s house. She came out on the porch to greet us and gave us both a big hug. She welcomed us in the house, sat us down and automatically went into the kitchen and returned with a fresh cup of coffee for us. Then she told us she had just baked an apple pie and we had to have a piece of it. My Daddy did the customary, “No thanks, we have to be going real soon. We just stopped by to say hello.” “I’ll just hurry and cut you a piece to eat with your coffee” and we had pie and coffee within 5 minutes of our visit. Now, that’s hospitality. Now we did have to look and brag at several pictures of nieces, nephews, grandbabies and so forth but that pie was really good.
Anyway, the point is that times and standards have changed. You now run across rude customer service and people who think hospitality is an outmoded thing. It is sad and people tell me that I just have to adjust and accept it. Well, maybe so, but if the South had had a little more food and ammunition during the war, we wouldn’t be putting up with this kind of crap. And that’s the truth. That’s about all I’ve got to say about that matter.
Recently both my son and my daughter made me very proud. My son, Kyle was having trouble with the Credit Union where he financed his car for a very good rate. They changed his interest rate to a much higher rate and claimed that he had never made the Credit Union the legal owner on the title. Well, he filled out several papers to fix the problem but he continued to receive delinquent charges for the higher interest rate and letters and phone calls almost every day telling him he needed to resolve the issue. He resolved it again and again but the head office in Virginia (of all places) would tell him by phone it was resolved and then send a threatening letter the next week.
He was at the point of frustration where we have all been at one time or another and cussed them out on the phone and told them to come and get the dam car if they couldn’t get their head out of their ass. Well, I suggested we go into the local office to resolve the issue and Kyle said that they told him the local office could not resolve it because the title office in Kentucky had to send a copy of the title to the Virginia Office. Well, after some persuasion, we went to the local office and we were both rather vocal. We sort of almost politely informed the office supervisor that between us we had almost 75 years of membership and that the Virginia Office had stated the local office could not do anything. We made it plain that if the local office could not intervene into a broken electronic process that we would have no further use of the Credit Union. Words were said, copies of paperwork was made, the problem was resolved.
My daughter, Margaret was recently suffering from a coworker who had appointed herself to be Margaret’s boss and caused great frustration for Margaret everyday by bossing her around and interfering with her work. Margaret takes a lot of abuse before she gets her dander up but she finally reached the point. She had tried to resolve the issue with Management and management’s solution was for her to try harder to get along with the B from hell. Well, Margaret drafted up a letter entitled “Hostile Working Environment” and gave it to Management. Suddenly, sensing some liability from allowing the B from hell to run wild and continue alienating all her coworkers they finally came up with a solution. They moved the rude broad to the back where she answers the telephone and they monitor the phone calls. Since Margaret and some other coworkers told management they would no longer put up with the situation, they reluctantly took action.
This is the sad new world we live in where you have to be prepared to battle to get resolution when no battles should be necessary if people simply did the job they are paid to do and common courtesy and “hospitality” are practiced.
You can’t wait patiently until someone comes along with a brain and takes action. You have to take the bull by the horns and swing it round and round and throw it through the head office window first to get their attention and then politely ask them to resolve the issue.
At any rate, I am very proud of my two youguns (young ones) for listening and taking Dad’s advice that I preached to them over and over and over and over through the years. YOU HAVE TO STAND UP FOR YOURSELF.
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