Westerner

In 1968, I spent the summer at the IBM Systems Research Institute n NYC, It was a chance to get to know New York and New Yorkers. After the first two months, I brought a backpack back to the city, planning to hike into the wilderness above Woodstock. People would really give me a wide eye, especially when they saw my Indian knife hanging from a thong on the side of the pack.

I needed a couple of things, so I went to the fifth floor of Abercrombie and Fitch -- the backpacking section -- and was chatting with the salesman there.

"You Westerners are do-it-yourselfers," he said. "New Yorkers won't do anything for themselves. If there's anything wrong with their apartment, they have to call the Super."

"Interesting!" I said. "And backpackers are do-it-yourselfers!"

"Exactly! I understand that frame of mind because I used to live out West."

"Really! Where did you live?"

"Ohio."

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