h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

For 40 years out of 43 I lived in London - a city of more than 10 million people. You just don't bump into people you know too often in that kind of place. Here in Austin though it's almost a weekly occurence for someone to say "Hey, you work at Cheapo/you're the Cheapo guy/you work at that cd store." It's kind of disconcerting for someone like me who's spent most of their life in a place where it's easy to be anonymous.

And now one of our customers is a neighbour . I was outside the front door watering my cacti this morning when I hear someone leave the apartment above us and walk down the stairs. "Ah" I thought, "someone's moved in upstairs, I'd better say hello."

"Hey, you work at Cheapo!"

You have to admit, Gosho. You don't exactly have a Texan look to you. Very chic, London-eque look, but not very Texan.

Maybe you need to buy a toupe to wear when you're not at work - then you could say, "Nah, that guy's bald!"

Lord Scott gets a similar thing around here - being on the radio, people reccognize his voice, even on the phone. He can always tell when they're looking at him (in person, not on the phone ) that they're trying to figure out where they know his voice from...

I might not look very Texan, but with the shaved head and the little chin beard I look very Austin

I never said you didn't look Austin!

I don't exactly look London-esque either - maybe when I had the ponytail

Maybe you're just Austin-tatious, Gosho.

I'm puzzled that it should bother you to meet
customers who remember you from Cheapo Records.
If they've been in the store, they're obviously
music lovers. So they're not total riffraff.

I work in a public library, and hundreds of people
recognize me on the street. I've gotten used
to it. Maybe you will, too. Give it time.

I'm gonna come back and read what you said in about 10 minutes Paul - 'What's opera Doc' is just starting on Cartoon Network

Kill the wabbit

Y'all are so amusing...

Hey Gosho -- care to lend me a hand on the Columbian Violence thread in PR, seeing that you're still subscribed to it and all?

Sure Mikey - I'll be over in a mo

Paul, Paul, Paul Austin-tacious *faints* ::THUD::

I don't know... I guess I just prefer to be anonymous. Maybe I'm paranoid.

I don't know, when I lived in Austin, there were advantages to having people recognize who I was.

Walking through a delightful part of East Austin back to my car, some youngish thugs start hassling me, when one of them says -- "Hey, wait, you can't do that -- she's the Girl Scout lady!"

At Wal-Mart, trying to get all my bags out to the car, and some football players give me a hand -- "Hey, you're the chiquita who hooked up our computers for us!"

Of course, this is all assuming that people recognize you for *good* reasons....

Mikey

Yeah - you haven't seen my customer service

"Hey, he's that guy who told us not to make such a mess of the recent arrivals section... let's get him!!!"

I hate it when people leave messes for you... this Australian couple left me a dozen sunglasses to put back up today.

I came from a small town, and when we moved near Denver, I felt a bit stranded without people ALWAYS saying hi to me. About every day, I'd get two or three different hellos from people who knew me through high school or my mom's piano teaching.

I was admittedly depressed when I only knew three other people (my family) over here. Now I get almost the same amount of hellos daily!!! YAY!!!

Will have to start all over again in England... Ah well!!!

And you know that when you get there, *nobody* will ever say hello to you - British people don't say hello or talk to each other, whether it's in a lift, on a bus, on a train, at the checkout, anywhere, until formally introduced

Whereas in Texas, durn near everyone says "Hi" or something. When I first moved down there, it kept freaking me out a bit. When you're walking down the street in Chicago and someone you don't know comes up and starts talking to you, it usually isn't a good sign. And then I kept wondering if I'd met these people before, and just didn't remember. Took me awhile to figure it all out... Them Texans....


Mikey

Herrrmmm.... But Ian will say hello!!! YAY!!! And if I really need to hear people say hello, I'll call them!!!

Well, come on... Ian really can't come here, and I'm not going to put him through this patriotic puke!!!

And I want out, too. Bwahahahahaa...

Bloody marvelous ain't it - for 15 years I wanted to come and live in America. I get here and what happens...

Well, maybe after I leave it'll get better. Maybe it's a biiiig conspiracy to get me out of here...

I'm just a little upset that I won't really see much of the States while I live here.....

But you can always come back to visit... if there's any of it left