Whatever Happened to When in Rome? …

This morning as we were climbing the escalator at the Silver Spring Metro stop we encountered something we see a lot around these parts this time of year: tourists. And as tourists are wont to do in our fair city, they were standing on the left side of the escalator. People who know me, know I have no love for the “tourons,” but I am a reasonable person, and know that local customs are unlikely to be known outside of the area. As I passed the visitors, I said to the adult male, “It is local practice to stand to the right so that others can walk on the left.” A woman in front of me turned around and said “Yeah!” and I told her that they couldn’t know, and it’s not like there are signs.

We continued to the platform to wait for a train and a few seconds later the tourist I spoke to, and his 2 pre-teen daughters, walked near us and I smiled at them. The gentleman said “sorry, we’re not from around here.” I replied “I assumed as much, which is why I was trying to be nice and let you know before you got downtown and someone wasn’t so nice.”

What he said next stunned me.

“You weren’t nice.”

“Excuse me?” I said. “The woman in front of me may not have been nice, but I believe I was very polite,” and I repeated exactly what I said to him. He nodded, but it seemed to me that what I was saying was going in one ear and out the other.

All the while, his daughters scowled at me.

I could have easily titled this “Damned if you do, damned if you don’t,” but I am trying very hard to stay positive.