Official "Seattle Freeze" Discussion Thread (Spokane, Pacific: middle school, relocate to)

[tobester]

I have lived in the city for 23 years and find people to be open and interesting. I think the "freeze" is a myth. Give people a reason to interact with you and they will.

[green_mariner]

Originally Posted by gdude

thats cool.

Even though I am a die hard cold weather fan. I am enjoying this slow warm up.

Cold weather is a good thing IMHO. For some reason, I see a correlation between hot weather and high crime rates.

Now back to the topic of the "Seattle Freeze". There might be a correlation between the weather and this sociological term known as the "freeze".

[Ira500]

Cold weather is a good thing IMHO. For some reason, I see a correlation between hot weather and high crime rates.

Now back to the topic of the "Seattle Freeze". There might be a correlation between the weather and this sociological term known as the "freeze".


I think you're onto something, Lafitte. You don't hear much about how dangerous and scary Fargo, North Dakota is. But places like Memphis and Miami you do.

[dpgtfc]

Well, Detroit isn't exactly the tropics.

[green_mariner]

Originally Posted by Ira500

Cold weather is a good thing IMHO. For some reason, I see a correlation between hot weather and high crime rates.

Now back to the topic of the "Seattle Freeze". There might be a correlation between the weather and this sociological term known as the "freeze".


I think you're onto something, Lafitte. You don't hear much about how dangerous and scary Fargo, North Dakota is. But places like Memphis and Miami you do.

I live near Atlanta, where it can hit 80 degrees F as early as March(sporadically though) and you have murders all of the time. 2008 was a relatively light years with 85 murders. I also think poverty could be a factor. Not so much income, but a poverty and lack of jobs can add to that. For some reason the weather can have an effect. The riots of the 60's happened in summer.
As for Seattle, whatever sociological "freeze" is going on could have a correlation with the weather, mainly the rain and the clouds. I don't know for sure but it would be interesting. One thing to remember is that correlation is not causation.

[Heiwos]

Great pix! So easy to become jaded by natural beauty here.

Originally Posted by tobester

I have lived in the city for 23 years and find people to be open and interesting. I think the "freeze" is a myth. Give people a reason to interact with you and they will.

Au contraire, I saw the freeze in action today. In a coffee shop a young guy tells the young woman at the adjacent table that he's visiting from North Carolina and then asks some innocuous question about the area. She gave him a curt monotone reply and looked right back down at her homework.

[dpgtfc]

Originally Posted by Heiwos

Au contraire, I saw the freeze in action today. In a coffee shop a young guy tells the young woman at the adjacent table that he's visiting from North Carolina and then asks some innocuous question about the area. She gave him a curt monotone reply and looked right back down at her homework.

How is this unique to Seattle? Getting hit on by some guy while you are trying to do your homework, in a public place. A coffee shop isn't a bar, it isn't really something I would consider a place to socialize with strangers.

I would probably have done the same (not rude, but not engaging), and I grew up in Missouri and lived here for 31 years (moving soon though). I was shopping here in Missouri once and saw an associate that happened to be an attractive woman. I walked up to her to ask her a question and said "Hi! Excuse me!" to get her attention and she looked at me with disdain and said "I don't think so" and walked away. I wasn't even flirting and it wasn't even in a flirting tone. I called the manager and she appologized to me and probably got written up.

Rude people exist everywhere, I wouldn't say one isolated example is proof of the "freeze". Not everwhere you go are people chatty and never preoccupied with what they are doing (such as homework). It is rude to interrupt too, don't ya know?

[goldengrain]

Originally Posted by Rudy311

In reply to your comment,
I agree people here can be cordial and friendly when it comes to work situations and those outside of what affects them personally.
I challenge you the next time you go to the Mall or any other public place, walk up to anyone and attempt to strike up a conversation.Unless you're talking to someone in Dallas, people here likely won't engage you unless you are asking the time.
I have lived in many places including the south,but here unless people know you, they don't want to know you, or your business.(I have lived here over 32 years) People here tend to be distrustful initially until they get to know you, and I tend to be the the same way. It doesn't mean we don't care, just that we prefer it that way.
My neighbors are also that way, I don't go out of my way to know them,and that's just fine with me.

Something inside of me is kind of shocked that you would think that striking up a conversation with a stranger in a mall is not unusual behavior and, well, pushy.

I'm sorry, but, why should I want to?

I just don't understand the need to socialize over nothing, just for its own sake. I guess there are just different personality types. I would think I was infringing on their space to fulfil some unknown need on my part. I would expect them to think the same.

I don't get it.

[Heiwos]

I said the question was innocuous; it was a question any visitor might ask. I didn't get the impression he was hitting on her. If a coffee shop isn't a place to demonstrate the freeze, where is? Sure many women have the attitude with any guy. Maybe we should take all women out of the Seattle freeze equation?

[goldengrain]

Originally Posted by LongDawson

Thanks for your question. To answer: don't fit in--as in the feeling you get when you move to a foreign country. Like me, for example, I have lived for a time in Europe, and for more than a few years in Asia. I don't fit in there. It is not a unique phenomenon that when you move far away, you may not fit in. I had no problem getting by, day-to-day.

People move around and in the new environment they may feel like they have to "fit in". But it's not possible to fit in everywhere.

New Yorkers will remind you every 10 minutes that they are from New York and they get everything in New York. I don't care. Go dream about your pizza with someone else. Vermont and other east coasters come from a different culture altogether. They don't fit in. Doesn't mean there are undesirable or anything, they just don't fit in. If they want to find perfect fit-in-harmony move back to Vermont.

So, all that you can point to is someone from NY enjoying the pizza back at home, and that makes them outcasts?
No mention of what it is about NEnglanders that gets your goat?

If I object to something I like to give a more substantial reason than 'I don't like them'. Doesn't make for an enlightening conversation.