Date:  Thu, 23 Oct 1997 09:54:41 -0500
From:  "Emerson, Jessie J" <jjemerso[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]INGR.COM>
Subject: Re: "Bless you" (was "Good morning")

You folks are hard! Even if the phrases (or tail wags, if you wish) are
meaningless, they connect me to the people I meet in a (to me)
satisfying way. I always say "good morning," I always say "bless you"
when someone sneezes, and I always hold doors for people, especially the
elderly (I'm a woman in my 30s, by the way). People who don't do these
or similar things seem alien to me, and if for some reason I'm in a bad
mood and don't do one of them, it makes me feel horrible! I realize
that this is probably a learned behavior indicative of Southern society
(not necessarily gentility), but I enjoy, even need, these meaningless
pleasantries!

A friendly old Southern redneck coon dog who wags her tail most of the
time,
Jessie Emerson

> ----------
> From:     Julia Cochran[SMTP:COCPROFS[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]UGA.CC.UGA.EDU]
> Sent:     Thursday, 23 October, 1997 9:26 AM
> To:  ADS-L[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]UGA.CC.UGA.EDU
> Subject:   Re: "Bless you" (was "Good morning")
>
> >and even taken as an empty formula, it
> >still struck me as a conscious gesture of making human contact with a
> >stranger in a city which otherwise does a poor job at interpersonal
> >relations.
>
> Precisely -- like a tail-wag. Thanks for putting it so well.
>