Sorry about the lack of activity, folks. Things are a little busy in my corner these days.
In the 5+ years I have been in Chapleau, I have noticed an interesting local phenomenon. I have previously lived in Sudbury, Toronto and Ottawa. This activity is unique to Chapleau, from my experience. I am referring to the act of stopping one's vehicle in the middle of a street (sometimes when there is traffic) to roll down the window and have a conversation with someone. Even more extreme is the act of two vehicles going in opposite directions stopping so that their drivers can shoot the breeze. Chapleau is indeed a very friendly place. Personally, I find the usual nod or wave to suffice. While this practice can at times be a little annoying (when the stopped car or truck is holding up traffic), most of the time I get a kick out of this local form of social networking. Clearly, larger centres could not support this type of activity due to the larger traffic volumes. I can't imagine people doing this on Lasalle Blvd. or on Steeles Ave.
I have a few questions to you longtime Chapleau residents:
1. Is there a name for this stopping and chatting?
2. Have people in Chapleau always done this?
3. Have you ever seen people in other towns doing this?
I am anxious to hear what people have to say about this.
I, having been part of the repercussion of this trend in Chapleau, call it a simple variant of 'roadhoggery'. No, it wasn't necessarily a traffic jam caused by the apparent talkative drivers idyll before me; but nonetheless, people have places to be and why should we, the obeying and hapless others, make special detours and violate the law for the inconsiderate?
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