When a friend from Ontario visited, I told him. I said, “If you smile at women in Halifax, even in bars, they’ll smile back. Sometimes they might even say hi, unprompted!” A veteran of the grim meat-markets of Toronto, he didn’t believe me, but I showed him the friendly way it goes around here.
Even out on the street, it happens. This morning in the pouring, freezing rain, you were wearing a yellow slicker crossing at Robie and Cunard, I was plugged into my iPod. I caught your eye and your smile was the sweetest thing I saw all day. This has been a freezing, fucked-up winter, but you reminded me there are benefits to living here: All you sweet, smiling women.
From Away
This article appears in Feb 12-18, 2009.