Hot in the US

Abroad, Americans are known for some positive things and some negative things. Americans are friendly and polite, always remembering to say “please” and “thank you.” They are also known for fanny packs, loud voices and culturally sensitivity, but I’d like to think that the good outweighs the bad, right?

Turns out, Americans may be abandoning their polite demeanor. In her piece at Time.com called “Are Americans Over Being Polite?”, Aylin Zafar considers whether Americans are using “please” and “thank you” less and less because they are losing interest in being polite, or rather that they’re simply using newer phrases, but are still considerate in their interactions with strangers. She uses considerable information from a NPR piece, as well, where both sides of the debate have been examined.

Americans have been abandoning traditional phrases like “please” and “thank you” in favor of other sentiments. When dining out and asked for more food or drink, Americans may tell waiters “I’m good,” instead of “no, thank you.” And—much to a linguistic purist’s chagrin—instead of saying “you’re welcome,” plenty of Americans say “no problem” instead.

NPR interviewed Lisa Gache, the co-founder of Beverly Hills Manners, on the issue. This manners expert said that the abandonment of formal phrases like “thank you” in favor of really casual phrases like “no problem” indicates a larger cultural trend: Americans are obsessed with making everything as casual as possible. She thinks this obsession is making Americans ruder. Most Americans seem to agree—76% of Americans surveyed in 2011 said that Americans were indeed becoming more rude.

On the other side of the debate, Zafar ponders whether the replacement of traditional words with newer—still civil—phrases really signals that Americans are becoming ruder. Emily Post Senning, the great-granddaughter of Emily Post who formalized standard American manners in 1922, says that manners and standards for manners have always changed over time, as have the words to say thanks and offer appreciation.

Certainly, the issue seems to hinge primarily on the appropriateness of using casual words in a formal settings. Americans are certainly way too prone to make formal things much too casual; for example, our propensity to wear jeans to the opera or order a Bud Light at a fine restaurant. Is “no problem” appropriate for a waiter at an upscale bar? Of course not. Is it fine for a bartender at some divey joint? Probably.

What do you think that the erosion of “please” and “thank you” means? Do you think that Americans are becoming less polite?

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It must be strange to be the only resident of a place. There would be nobody to corroborate your idea that people from your town or city are the very best of the state. There would be miles and miles of road without a streetlight or a business. It would have to make you feel a little bit like you were the star of your own Twilight Zone episode of “The Last Man on Earth.”

That’s how the one-and-alone resident of Buford, Wyoming had to feel. Don Sammons, the last resident of what’s been called the smallest town in America, is about to retire from his business in Buford and move to what will certainly be a more populous town.

It’s hard to imagine how a town comes to have so few residents, but still not be incorporated into another place. Most tiny towns like Buford don’t have any nearby towns by which they could be incorporated, dooming them to become smaller and smaller until they become virtual or literal ghost towns.

Unlike many places that face extinction when their last resident dies or is decides to move, Sammons departure may not leave Buford to wither into nothingness. The town is scheduled to go up for auction on April 5 at noon.

At the height of its growth, Buford boasted a population of 2,000 people. It first lost residents when the Transcontinental Railroad was rerouted away from the village, and continued to lose residents when they were no longer able to handle the rough climes of the Montana town. The town itself is the highest on Interstate 80—from New York to California—and has colder temperatures than anywhere else in all of already-chilly Wyoming. Additionally, I-80 between Cheyenne and Laramie closes down several times during the winter, further isolating the tiny hamlet.

Sammons and his family relocated to the tiny town in the 1980’s, but the rest of his relatives eventually moved away. Sammons stayed in the town, acting as mayor of the community and operating the trading post in town since the early 1990’s.

This trading post will be part of the auction, as will a gas station/convenience store, a 1905 school house that has been used as an office, a cabin, a three-bedroom home and 10-acres of land. Bidding for the town and its assets will begin at $100,000.

What do you think about the Buford auction? Do you think it will save the place from becoming a ghost town?