culture shock: a new jersey farewell

On my way back to Philly from a Check-IT-Out conference in Hudson Valley, NY on Sunday, Jim Moore and I stopped at a full-service gas station to fill our rental vehicle up. I was confused, since I had thought we had planned to come down I-95, and I had planned to rendezvous with a friend on the north side of Philly. Jim had made alternate plans, but we hadn't discussed it. So I asked Jim to ask our attendant where we were on the map, just to make sure we were as far south as he thought we were. The attendant shook his head saying, "Ah, Jeez. Look, go down the road to exit 3 and ask someone there where you are in the map."

Quite a different response from what I've been accustomed to in Texas and Oklahoma. If you're lost you ask people at gas-stations. That's just common sense. And people who do full service are typically very friendly and helpful, tip-worthy service. I later discovered that NJ enforces full-service pumps by law. So, I guess the guy's just "doing his job."