Late Nights, Shop Owners Who Know Your Name, and a Different Kind of Manners

If you are a private person, being greeted by name on every street may feel like a lot.

By Neil Solomon · 2 min read

Picture a couple named Helen and Roger. They have spent their working lives in places where a shop visit takes ninety seconds and nobody says more than "Thanks, have a good one." Now they are thinking about a coastal town in Egypt, and they wonder what daily manners would feel like there.

What stands out to me in the stories people tell is the clock. Evenings run late. Shops stay open after dark. People are out and about when a retiree from a quieter country would normally be thinking about bed. Some people describe this as tiring at first. Others say it is the first time in years that the evening felt like part of the day.

The second thing is names. People who settle in often describe shop owners who learn their name within a few weeks. After that, a trip for bread or water becomes a short chat. There is joking, and there is asking after your health. I read this as a different idea of what a transaction is. In many places we come from, it is over when the money changes hands. In others, the talk is the point, and the sale is part of it.

That can be lovely. It can also take some getting used to. If you are a private person, being greeted by name on every street may feel like a lot. If you are lonely, it may be exactly what you were missing.

Humor matters here too. A joke is often how people show they have accepted you. A newcomer who answers with a smile, and tries a joke back, tends to be welcomed faster. A newcomer who stays formal may be treated politely but kept at a little distance. I would not call either way wrong. They are two ways of being a guest.

Helen and Roger might have a talk like this one evening.

"The man at the corner shop asked where I'd been," Helen says. "I only missed two days."

"Did he mean it?"

"I think so. He had my tea ready."

Roger laughs. "Then we'd better go back tomorrow."

I cannot tell anyone how this will feel for them. I can say that it helps to ask yourself which you value more, a quiet, anonymous errand or a warm one that takes ten minutes.