People Here are Fantastic!!!!!!! (Seattle, Federal Way: transplants, credit, houses)

[St.Croix to Seattle]

On our home search our GPS gave out so we were at the mercy of maps and locals....in the process we made a few friends....
First is Jeff & Twei they invited us to dinner at their Restaurant and despite us trying to pay refused to take our money for an excellent Vietnamese/American dinner.....if you are around Renton check them out...don't remember the name of the place but the address is 4004 Ne 4th street Renton,WA tell them Tim & Susan recommended....anyway next was the Department on Licensing--after waiting for 1.5 hours our number was called and we wanted to register our cars which can only be done elsewhere,,,the lady at the desk called the Vehicle Licensing location on Roosevelt and made us an appointment,even though there was not much of a crowd at the vehicle licensing location it was great to walk right up and walk out 15 minutes later...
Then to Boeing credit union which was highly recommend here and I see why,,,finally we found a place to bank that we have zero complaints about and I doubt that will change....also was great that they have a new branch very close to where we might live...
After searching for a few hours and not being able to find anyone that knew where NORTH BEACH is,we asked a nice older lady that happened to be going that way and said we could follow her.
I know this kind of stuff might have just been great luck on my Birthday and may never happen again but it sure left a lasting impression on us that will be hard to forget.....we have still not found a home,but have increased our search to four areas...Alki Beach,East Bremerton-Pebble Beach,North Beach & Renton---though we prefer to be near the beach Renton offers incredible views from the Hillside....
Thanks Everyone...

[allforcats]

St.Croix, thank you for your generosity of heart! Your kindness, and your happiness to say your joy "out loud" here, warms our hearts and will tell the universe to give you more and more joy! :-) A merry new life to you!! :-)
P.S. What you're experiencing is exactly what people are like here. :-) :-)

[wannabeaTexan]

Originally Posted by St.Croix to Seattle

On our home search our GPS gave out so we were at the mercy of maps and locals....in the process we made a few friends....
First is Jeff & Twei they invited us to dinner at their Restaurant and despite us trying to pay refused to take our money for an excellent Vietnamese/American dinner.....if you are around Renton check them out...don't remember the name of the place but the address is 4004 Ne 4th street Renton,WA tell them Tim & Susan recommended....anyway next was the Department on Licensing--after waiting for 1.5 hours our number was called and we wanted to register our cars which can only be done elsewhere,,,the lady at the desk called the Vehicle Licensing location on Roosevelt and made us an appointment,even though there was not much of a crowd at the vehicle licensing location it was great to walk right up and walk out 15 minutes later...
Then to Boeing credit union which was highly recommend here and I see why,,,finally we found a place to bank that we have zero complaints about and I doubt that will change....also was great that they have a new branch very close to where we might live...
After searching for a few hours and not being able to find anyone that knew where NORTH BEACH is,we asked a nice older lady that happened to be going that way and said we could follow her.
I know this kind of stuff might have just been great luck on my Birthday and may never happen again but it sure left a lasting impression on us that will be hard to forget.....we have still not found a home,but have increased our search to four areas...Alki Beach,East Bremerton-Pebble Beach,North Beach & Renton---though we prefer to be near the beach Renton offers incredible views from the Hillside....
Thanks Everyone...

Yeah, alot of us are pretty cool. In fact, just the other day, I was at a stop light in Federal Way and a girl pulled up next to me, asked me to roll my window down and wanted to know how to get to Sumner from where we were. And I went ahead and gave her the directions and let her get in front of me too because she had to switch lanes to get to hwy 18. So, I don't think you were just lucky.

[scirocco22]

See, not EVERYONE in the greater Seattle area is "cold, unfriendly, rude, and lacking manners."

[PencilMeIn]

I agree. I have lived in the Seattle area for 4 months now. Before moving here, I came to this forum frequently to read what people were posting about this area. The conclusions I have come to so far......People are friendly and nice....so I don't understand the whole freeze thing. On the other hand, the weather posts were right on....brrr...now this freeze I understand.

[WestCoastDiva]

I agree..just moved back home to the Seattle area, and it warmed my heart to see that the people here are still friendly and kind. One day our car would not start, and a woman with a big truck came over to us and gave us a jump ( our battery was going bad), we never even had the chance to ask anyone for a jump..she just came up to us! Our neighbors came over and bought us a beautiful flower/plant with a card that said " Welcome to the neighborhood".soo nice! Our other neighbor showed us how we had to separate the recycle trash from the other trash, and two of the neighbors took our trash overload and put it in their cans!! We moved from San Diego
( which is a nice place and plenty of sunshine), but the kind people here make up for the over cast skies! I used to tell my husband that Washington State has some of the nicest people you could ever meet. I remember how kind people were when I was growing up here. Glad to see that hasn't changed and glad to be back home!!

[robertpolyglot]

Originally Posted by WestCoastDiva

I remember how kind people were when I was growing up here. Glad to see that hasn't changed and glad to be back home!!

Well that's just it, babe, that's your hometown and your frame of reference. And does this helpfulness extend into real hang-out together, do coffee or drinks type of friendship? That's the litmus test.

See, I lived on the Eastside for 3+ years. Oh, yeah, people were nice and polite, but not friendly. I'm originally from So. Cal.

I know of another lady, now retired, from West Seattle who transferred down to a very nice LA suburb with her husband. She didn't like it and complained. She was glad to eventually be back up north.

The Northwesterner and the Southern California have very different social vibes. It makes for different frames of reference.

[scirocco22]

Here we go again.

I lived on the eastside for over 35 years. No matter which neighborhood I was in, the vast majority of my neighbors were from other parts of the country or even out of the country.

I too remember the Seattle are as a kid growing up in the 1950's and 60's and not remembering any of this "nice, polite, but not friendly" vibe that you younger folks talk about. Most seemed very friendly. It wasn't until the area started to see the onslaught of huge numbers of people moving in from all parts of the country and world, that the dynamics of the area started to change.

[robertpolyglot]

Originally Posted by scirocco22

Here we go again.

I lived on the eastside for over 35 years. No matter which neighborhood I was in, the vast majority of my neighbors were from other parts of the country or even out of the country.

The Eastside is gorgeous...no doubt. The "procession" in either direction on the floating bridges across Lake Washington is borderline euphoric.

Let me describe one of several examples. I went into Washington Mutual in Kirkland to open an account. I was on my lunch hour. It took about 5 minutes to get seated with an account rep. Before I go further, I am a clean-cut looking white guy, was in a coat and tie, was very polite and business-like, and would have been in my early 30s at the time. This lady was obviously a "local," either from the area or transplanted from MN or WI at an early age (indigenous Scandinavian/Anglo stock, sorry). We are going through all the info like name, address, SS # and so on. We get to "place of birth." I say "Santa Monica, CA" and I see her eek out a small wince. It's amazing how a professional gets that kind of treatment but if a Tonya Harding-alike who was born in Bothell WA was sitting there, no facial grimacing would have occurred. This was one of several stories. I've also got similar stories from Portland. At work, I was always the one who had to start the lunch invitations, or invite someone over to my house or offer someone a ride if in difficulty. Yes, people accepted, but with kind of a dumbfounded look, like "Gee, I never thought of that."

I lived in Atlanta before moving to the Northwest. As a Yankee (by annexation, I guess), my next door neighbor was as Southern as the day is long. She met me early on, when I moved in and worked on my yard. She talked to me all the time, telling me about her upbringing and how Atlanta had changed, and always invited me in for iced tea when the weather was muggy. When my parents came from LA to see me, she invited everybody over for lunch when she heard they were coming. (It was a hoot, this very Southern lady conversing with my parents and their thick European accents). Those are the kinds of neighbors I'm used to and the kinds of neighbors my parents were to people when we were kids in California.

I don't think any Californian in a customer service setting would ever bristle at a transplant from another state. I can think of one situation where a woman I know got cool treatment when she was doing some paperwork at an agency/place of business because she was marrying a Palestinian and he was moving into the country...this was on the heels of 9/11. As their conversation progressed and the person across the desk learned that he was a Palestinian Christian and they were getting married in a Catholic church, he became nice. But that was because the wounds of 9/11 were still fresh, but not at a person from Maine or Texas or Nevada.

Of course everyone is helpful there. They are. They are polite. But until you've lived somewhere else where people let you into their lives or houses more readily, then Washingtonians keep on thinking they're friendly. It's all relative.

[scirocco22]

*pulls some of my hair out* I'm truly sorry if you regularly ran into such circumstances, robert. However, the point in my prior post, and it continues to be, is MOST Seattle area residents are transplants. To have a bank employee wince when she sees you're from California is almost unbelievable to me because there are SO many ex-Californians residing in Washington now.

When you mention "Washingtonians," it sounds as if the majority of people living in the Seattle have roots going back several generations. It's not the case anymore. Several decades ago, perhaps. Certainly not now.

Again, I remember in the 1950s when most I knew DID have roots in the area. When I left, very few of my neighbors or co-workers happened to be born in the area. The vast majority were transplants from other states or countries. Todays "Washingtonians" are very likely to have been born somewhere else, or grew up somewhere other than Washington ...or specifically talking about those in the greater Puget Sound area.