Who do you say Good Morning to?

2008-06-10T07:10:27Z

Good Morning, KCL. At the weekend, those people from the Nice Movement wrote about who does and doesn’t say ‘good morning’ to whom on the daily grind around town.

Londonist likes nothing better than a cheery “Mornin’!” to set it up for the day but that’s because it’s often up before everyone else, scouring the depressing London news and trying to muster the energy to be upbeat on a daily basis.

But not everyone’s pleased to be greeted thus by strangers or roaming London blogs. Equally, we love it when someone’s so surprised you said hello, their natural reaction is to blurt it back enthusiastically, and sometimes even wave without actually knowing they’re doing it.

Who have you said good morning to today and who did you avoid? And why?

2008-06-10T08:19:51Z

I say good morning/thanks to the bus driver without fail every morning. After that it depends entirely on my mood. I frequently don’t even say hello to my colleagues, and there are only five of us in the office.

But some days I say hello to lots of strangers

I’m a woman. I am fickle.

2008-06-10T08:40:41Z

I say good morning to the Lollipop Man who patrols the crossing outside my local.

And some of the regulars who are waiting for the bus that goes up the hill to the tube station, which sometimes I take and sometimes I don’t, and the regs are always perplexed as to my seemingly random bus usage.

2008-06-10T08:43:39Z

Is it really “nice” to say “good morning” to a complete stranger? What’s the point? Yes, hold doors open and say thank you if someone does something for you and so on, but just blurting out “good morning” every so often seems pointless.

Perhaps I’m just a black-hearted curmedgeon.

2008-06-10T08:47:49Z

Your local? The pub has a lollipop man? Brilliant.

I say morning to old people – they are always more friendly in the mornings.

2008-06-10T08:56:39Z

Yep, sadly the pub’s shut when he’s patrolling in the morning and only the really serious drinkers are in the boozer when he does his afternoon shift.

2008-06-10T09:35:51Z

I say good morning to fellow dog walkers on Richmond Park. It’s a practice that doesn’t seemed to be widely observed in the afternoons, strangely. (I don’t mean saying ‘good morning’ in the afternoons. That would be silly. I mean any form of informal greeting.)

However, there does seem to be some sort of hierarchy at work amongst dog walkers, based on the size and number of dogs being walked. Owners of sweet or cuddly dogs and puppies will smile a charming ‘good morning’, whilst the owners of large, boisterous dogs – especially matching pairs – will bellow MORNING! as though it were some some sort of command.

The snooty rock bitch from the top of Richmond Hill with her supercilious Afghans doesn’t bother to say anything.

2008-06-10T12:58:04Z

Suckmonster, you are indeed a black hearted curmudgeon. Saying good morning to people restores one’s faith in humanity. Indeed, for those of us who work from home and don’t have real people in an actual workplace to talk to all day, getting greetings from people by the corner shop or at the bus stop can be tear inducingly nice, sometimes.

2008-06-10T13:27:46Z

I say it to people on my street. They don’t say morning back. Not really their fault; they don’t know it’s my street, after all.

2008-06-10T13:32:17Z

But what’s the point? I’m, believe it or not, quite mannerly and say thank you, please, excuse me and so on, a lot, but I don’t see the sense in saying to a complete stranger, “good morning”. For one thing that would mean actually making eye contact with a stranger. And THAT IS NOT ON.

2008-06-10T13:48:29Z

Sociopath.

2008-06-10T13:59:19Z

Do you really want every other stranger you pass smiling at you and saying “good morning”? Fuck that, it would do my head in.

2008-06-10T14:11:08Z

I finally broke the cashier in the local corner shop two weeks ago after a three month low-grade war of attrition. He has consistently refused to respond to my cheerful greetings, leaving front of house activities to his more ebullient colleague. Over the last fortnight, however, he greeted me with enthusiastic hellos and a beaming smile.

Frankly, I am finding this incredibly unnerving. I now shop at an alternative purveyor of tinned condiments and over ripe vegetables in a bid to avoid this wierdo.

mourns the loss of personal space

2008-06-10T16:23:00Z

A ‘good morning’ from a stranger can be a wonderful thing. I tend keep mine for the people I inadvertently make eye contact with. And when I’m feeling particularly froggy, there’s no telling who’s in for some savannahwellwishing.

A small act of friendliness in a harsh and bitter world lifts your spirits. And if saying good morning back is too much for you, a slight smile and polite nod of acknowledgment is nice response.

2008-06-10T17:07:22Z

Crikey. What does “feeling froggy” involve?

2008-06-10T18:08:35Z

Froggy: boisterous, bouncy, happy (and ever so slightly cheeky) ;)

2008-06-10T18:43:05Z

I thought she meant in a French frame of mind.

2008-06-11T09:23:42Z

I was thinking it might be about doing that thing with your tongue.

2008-06-11T09:41:02Z

My dictionary defines it as being of or like a frog or abounding in frogs.

contemplates how Savannah could come to have such a surfeit of frogs

2008-06-11T17:03:08Z

“Froggy” is our new favourite adjective.

2008-06-11T22:00:53Z

Do you really want every other stranger you pass smiling at you and saying “good morning”? Fuck that, it would do my head in.

I used to think that. Especially as my mother used to say good morning to everyone and as a teenager I wanted to run away when she did it. Then again, she did come from a small town outside Glasgow where it was normal to use the word “hen” as a term of endearment to total strangers (as in, “you alright, hen” when giving you change in shops).

Worryingly, I now smile at total strangers on the tube. I think “why are you smiling at me?” And I realise I’ve just become my mother and been smilingly strangely to everyone around me.

2008-06-11T22:40:55Z

I’m…with Sucky. I don’t say good morning to people I don’t actually, personally know. By name. Because it is weird. Sometimes I pretend to by rummaging in my bag to avoid saying it to neighbours too. I only know two of my neighbours properly.

I’m perfectly polite to the people I come into contact with. Like the jolly chap in the coffee shop at my train station. He sometimes gives me two free biscuits and even though I don’t like them I act thrilled. But I don’t feel the need to walk around like some mental catching the eyes of and trilling hello to every person I pass on my way to work. Because that would be weird.

2008-06-12T06:54:39Z

That “Good Morning, Good Morning” song off the Tropicana advert does my head in. It’s like being waterboarded in pure schmaltz. (Smaltzboarded, if you will.) If someone that unrelentingly cheery approached me first thing, I’d push them over.