It was a scary experience for LilBro as he walked the streets of Jacksonville, Florida when he first came to visit.

Un-nerving, even for a hardened New York native.

"They.. they were all being NICE to me.. saying 'hello' and 'how are you' an' shit like they KNOW me.."

I laughed at him, but his consternation was real.

Dont get me wrong. Even with the traditional outward Pennant reserve, he is a famously sociable fella.
But even so, he was torn then as to what he was supposed to do.

Respond, or just avoid the idiots?

Now, Im starting to understand his feeling then of fighting ingrained instincts and his relief at fleeing back to New York where people mind their own damned business.

New York is a famously crowded place where prolonged eye-contact, even casual eye-contact, can be construed as an act of aggression or confrontation.

So you tend not to make any social contact on the streets, even if most New Yorkers turn out to be suprisingly affable, if uniformly high-strung and hurried, when you get to know them one on one.

Walking the less crowded, but still active, not-so-urban streets of Bayonne.. after learning how to smoothly avoid eye-contact .. its becoming un-nerving that I have to unlearn..sorta..sometimes.. on occasion... an essential urban instinct.

I mean, this is still the New York metro area, so Southern-style friendliness isnt to be expected or assumed. But when people are giving me nods and smiles, and I respond by instinctively avoiding eye-contact.. well, I feel strange... un-nerved.

Spooked.

And rude.

What am I serposed to do? I cant help myself now.

SPECIALLY when its friendliness envinced by Jersey femmes wearing their trademark *skin-tight* shorts and pants. Ai-yi-yi. Lord a' mercy.
(As opposed to the East Harlem or Bronx Mami Wear... a subtle difference and a subject for another day.)

I feel like a fuckin' idiot avoiding eye-contact then.
Heh, even if most of them ARE jailbait. :-)

----------------
As we stood around the Internet Cafe/artists gallery, the musician talked about what he needed to do to put some new songs together for gigs and albums, and of another photographer and poet putting on shows one day after coming out of the hospital.. I blurted out..

"Jeez, most folk think the life of an artist is an easy one."

Momentarily, that stopped the conversation.. and a look of pain(?) flickered over his face.

Then he answered evenly; "No, its not easy at all."

And we all left it at that.

Im no artist, but Im starting to appreciate.. (theres that word again).