So before we even moved here, we were looking at homes in Burlington, and we had breakfast with our friends there, who are long-time Vermont residents (and originally from upstate New York and the midwest which are also virtually the same thing). And they were filling us in on Vermont life.
And they told us, laughingly but let me tell you, it’s actually true, that you can’t get through a four-way stop in Vermont. It takes forever. Why? Because every single person at the stop sign smiles and waves, “No no, after you.” These are the most polite people, outside of Scandinavians, that I’ve ever encountered. I really thought they were exaggerating, until that very day, we stopped in the North End of Burlington to gas up our rental car, and as we were pulling out, a Vermont Public Works truck pulled right up on the curb next to us. Coming from South Florida, we were like, wtf is this a@$hole doing, he’s blocking our way, how inconsiderate, yadda yadda. Well. The guy hops out of his truck, blocking traffic and zips up to our window to tell us that our gas cap is open. Yup! He just hated for us to go on down the road with an open gas cap, so he took time out of his busy day to help us out. Now, dependent on where you live you may not find this shocking, but I for one was super pleasantly surprised like, it was so nice.
I’m a runner (more on that later, if you want to run in the cold or know where to run in Bennington, I’ve got the hook up), and I started to notice that people were yielding to me on a left turn on green, even though I had a Don’t Walk, they would literally stop in the intersection and wave me through though they had the right of way.
The people here are an absolute pleasure, and it’s so funny because I run right up by the hospital, and the only people who have ever almost hit me or have been speeding have New York State plates lol! God love ya, I steer clear when I see those yellow or blue and white plates. Green is good!
