a tale of 2 countries

a tale of 2 countries

1. Somewhere in extreme southern suburban Ontario in the late 1990's or before 2002:

It's the middle of the night and I used to like to drive all night sometimes and I needed gas. After pumping my own gas I headed towards the convenience store where an elderly woman was minding the gas station and store, all by herself. There was no plexiglas window or swing out drawer to exchange goods for currency between us. There was no restricted access of any kind to the inside of the store.


2. A clean and prosperous, and "safe" looking suburb somewhere in New England, 1-2011, a town formerly used to mild winters (thirties, forties and fifties (fahrenheit) and little snow:

A woman and two small children are walking after dark in twenty degree (fahrenheit) weather, no place within blocks to warm up. There had been around ten inches of snow recently, but the sidewalks had been ploughed by the town since the location is near the center of town, but walking was slow and cumbersome.

A few days later a woman carrying a baby is walking on the edge of a four lane highway not near the center of town, the sidewalks covered with three to four feet of snow from ploughing of only the highway, the temperature was just above zero (fahrenheit), no place within a half a mile to warm up.

And this is before the town exhausts its snow ploughing budget.