Minnesota Nice

It is natural to become accustomed to whatever your environment offers.  For example, when people around you are harried and unfriendly, you expect people to be harried and unfriendly.  That is the case in New York.  As much as I love my hometown, people in general are anxious, rushed and usually indifferent to strangers.  When pressed, they'll even snarl at you.

That attitude is expressed in a local joke. How do you ask for the time in New York?  You go up to someone and say, "Excuse me, Sir  Could you please tell me the time or should I just go fuck myself?"

So it is a culture shock for me to visit Minnesota.  The people here are so different.  They smile as if they know you.  They're friendly for no good reason.  The first few times it happened yesterday, I was unnerved and reflexively grabbed my wallet.  I wondered, "What's the scam?"  In New York, if someone focuses on you with friendliness, they're probably planning to steal your money.

But here they were just being nice!  How odd.  How pleasant.

I mentioned this to Beth and she used a phrase I haven't heard before - "Minnesota nice."  I looked it up and discovered the phrase even has its own meaning on Wikipedia.  That section explains: "Minnesota nice is the stereotypical behavior of people born and raised in Minnesota to be courteous, reserved, and mild-mannered. The cultural characteristics of Minnesota nice include a polite friendliness, an aversion to confrontation, a tendency toward understatement, a disinclination to make a fuss or stand out, emotional restraint, and self-deprecation. It can also refer to traffic behavior, such as slowing down to allow another driver to enter a lane in front of the other person."

 

Toto, we're not in New York any more...  Each of these behaviors is the opposite of what you expect from people in the Big Apple.

 

I had a wonderful time visiting Beth.  I met her charming husband Nate and adorable little Ollie.  They're a lovely family.  I visited their home which reminds me strongly of the house I grew up in (e.g., it has a finished basement, used for socializing).  Nate's hobby is brewing beer and he's as passionate about that as I am for motorcycling. 

 

Nate taught himself the craft of brewing beer and has become very skilled at it.  He brews a variety of different flavors.  He even had a blog about his hobby which, though now dormant, has good information on it.  Nate and Beth are deservedly proud of a full-sized bar Nate built from scratch in their basement; it has seven  taps for beer to flow out of kegs hidden beneath.  The bar is beautifully decorated with real tile and even has polished labels above each tap describing the specific flavor of the beer.  I tried both Raspberrry Porter and Ginger Snap-flavored beers; both were delicious.

 

Last week, Nate and Beth had an Oktoberfest party in their basement with 30 of their friends.  Beth said they have one every year but skipped last year due to her pregnancy.

Here are pictures of their basement-bar pulled from Nate's blog:

 You quickly get a sense of people when meeting them in person.  Beth showed me her neighborhood, including where her extended family grew up and lives.  She told me about her choir-singing, her job and co-workers, and her friends.  Open and friendly, Beth showed genial hospitality to an out-of-towner and displayed an easy-going nature.  We capped the visit with a terrific meal at a nice restaurant, during which I was introduced to a tasty local beer from Surly Brewing Co.  (I was disappointed to learn that you can't buy Surly beer outside of the region.)

 

Meeting Beth, Nate and Ollie was a great way to begin my trip to this foreign land.  Now I just need to find a Currency Exchange booth to convert my New York bucks into local Minnesota money.  I hear their bills are designed to be snow-resistant.  :-)