"Street Smarts for Women"

I was speaking with a woman today who grew up in Carroll County, briefly lived in Baltimore City and moved back to Carroll County. She said something that made me smile knowingly. She said one big lesson I learned about living in Baltimore is "Never Smile!"

I learned the same lesson years ago I told her, especially on a public bus. I asked her "How did you know that this is an unwritten rule in Baltimore?" She said, "If I smiled I got all sorts of unwanted attention from men" "One day, I smiled at a man in a grocery store, so he followed me out and kept following me. I had to avoid going home so I could lose him."

This inability to smile was one of the main reasons she decided to move back to Carroll County.

I told her that I lived 12 years in the city and I've developed such a tough outer core that I'm totally unprepared for all of the people who smile at me since I've lived here in Carroll County. I can't even prepare a smile in return fast enough for them to notice!