High-talk

Switching coasts means a jarring jump from a high-tech to a high-talk culture. Silicon Valley people are relatively reserved about getting entangled in the affairs of strangers. Not so South Floridians. When they greet you here with “You all right?”, they really mean it.

The first hints came before I’d even got off the plane. We Californians had been sitting in discreet silence for several hours, but then a couple who boarded in Jaxvl instigated a lively conversation that lasted all the way to Lauderdale. Back on land, I quickly noticed the same thing happening between strangers on buses and in other public places. Keeping to oneself when sharing a space is actually thought somewhat impolite.

Some strangers really push it, though. Like the b___ with a few drinks in her who called me some nasty names down at Gateway [East Sunrise Bl, FtLaud] ’cos I wouldn’t be her bud at 2am.

And if you’re expected to take an interest in total strangers, heaven forbid you should neglect friends — hence the surfeit of cell fones in S.Fla. If those things really do cause cancer, this region is going to be the first to know. People are on the phone while doing their grocery shopping, while wheeling the groceries to the car, while driving home in heavy traffic, even while Rollerblading^(TM). Those downscale are condemned to feeding their phone jones with a landline, perhaps by working as telemarketers. Even people shut out of the labor force entirely, manage to sate their social hunger — by spinning elaborate con pitches for as long as fifteen minutes (although with that kind of time invested, their punch line is likely to be “Can you spare ten dollars” rather than a lousy dime). One such type shadowed me for a full six blocks in the “combat zone” one warm March night, even leaving me briefly (on hold, as it were) at one point to try his con on someone else passing by.

The telco here, by the way, has a cool feature I’d like to see back home: calls from a residence, out to about thirty miles [50 km], cost US$0.25 (or less) for as long as you want to talk. This is kinda like giving me unmetered Internet :) — I don’t know how BellSouth makes any money doing it, but I’m not complaining.

Retailing, of course, is fully adapted to a high-talk style. The locals prefer to buy their morning paper from a person rather than a machine. At the Farm Stores convenience chain, the clerk actually goes to the shelf and brings to you whatever items you call for. (You aren’t allowed to serve yourself if you want to, as I found out. What a concept.) Go browsing in almost any store and a salesperson will appear at your side to point out something on a nearby rack that might also interest you, or to offer a special price “just for you” on the item you’ve already telegraphed a desire for.

And neighborhoods are big news here.
Welcome to Lake Ridge
With all the signage and the pinpoint civic projects, you’d almost think each one is a separate little city: Lake Ridge, Victoria Park, Rio Vista. Nobody admits to living in “Ft. Lauderdale” — ask and they’ll say something like “Middle River Terrace.” So it’s not really surprising that several neighborhoods even have their own (illegal) low-power radio stations, or that the campaign to relax the FCC prohibition against these so-called ‘pirates’ is based in South Florida. Where else ?

Hint: bootleg stations are most likely to show up on weekend nights, playing urban or Caribbean sounds. Active channels in central/west FtLaud while I was there (early ’98) included 95.3, 96.0, 101.1, 104.7, 107.1 and 91.7 MHz — this last one playing Christian hard rock! — and there are generally others going at various spots below 94 MHz.