Today Nicole and I decided to partake in a piece of Chili tradition; so we saddled up the Monte Carlo and drove down to Chili Fire Station #1 (of 4) where the annual
Chili "Chil-E" Festival was being held. Not wanting to be mistaken for common locals we both showed up sporting "Los Angeles City Fire Department" t-shirts. The provinciality of the Chileans(?) we encountered was as astounding as it was frightening.
Our first real experience with the locals was at the VFW Ladies Auxiliary Tent. We had decided to support our local veterans by purchasing lunch from the ladies of the VFW. We approached a table where three elderly ladies were seated and I proceeded to order our meal tickets. As one of the women took my money she glanced at our t-shirt and spoke; "Los Angeles? Is that around here?" Nicole and I looked at each other slightly confused and then I replied, "No...it's in California." We ate our sausages and walked away, believing that this was an isolated incident...perhaps simply a sweet old lady who had never traveled outside of her small hometown.
It was now time to complete our carnival-going experience with the purchase of the obligatory funnel cake. As we paid for this confectionary creation, the proprietor--a man in his 30s--glanced at our shirts and said, "Los Angeles? Where is that?" Such provincial innocence could have been accepted coming from a member of the VFW Ladies Auxiliary; but a repeat performance? This was too much and we decided that we needed to flee the scene before becoming entangled in this web of ignorance.
It is of our opinion that there is absolutely no excuse for someone assuming that Los Angeles is a town somewhere in Western New York.
This would also be an appropriate time to recount another classic Chili moment. The other day while at the grocery store (I happened to be wearing the same LAFD t-shirt), the cashier looked at me and then asked, "Are you from Los Angeles?" In typical big-city style I responded with an indignant "yes." As I was about to leave the store, the cashier--in a thin voice--says to me, "Do people from Los Angeles have accents or do they sound like us?" To this I responded, "Umm, they sound like me. Some people think I have an accent; I guess it depends on who you are." Thinking that this was the end of the conversation I began my exit when I was stopped yet again by the same thin voice: "Oh...because people from the south have accents so I was wondering if people from Los Angeles did too." At this point all I could do was shrug my shoulders and walk away.
And just in case any of you were wondering...there wasn't a trace of chili at the Chili chil-e festival. Go figure.
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