The Friendliest City - Grants Pass, Oregon

The Friendliest City - Grants Pass, Oregon

 The Friendliest City I know, and the The Friendliest City you'll ever find.  Finally realizing my goal to settle in Grants Pass was the culmination of a forty year journey.

Not having any knowledge of the area other than the climate and the scenery that had drawn us here, my wife and I were in for a very pleasant surprise.

We received a bonus!  The bonus was people!  The people who live here make it the The Friendliest City I've ever seen.

When we first moved to Grants Pass last year, we experienced such friendliness.  Not just the merchants, but the residents.  You can be standing in a store discussing a purchase, then suddenly a total stranger comes over and starts giving you very welcome information based on their experience with the item you're looking at.  It hasn't mattered where we are, people just come up and start a conversation.  At first I was a little taken aback and mentioned to my wife that people sure seem to be nosy here, but she said "no, the people here are just being natural."

Several times on our trips around the area we have pulled to the side of the road to look at a map, only to have someone stop alongside and ask if we needed help. 

Turning into traffic from a parking lot there is always someone gesturing to let you pull in front of them.  People go out of there way to offer help on everything, even the teenagers are very respectful!

I began asking my wife last year if, "I just looked feeble, and my age was catching up with me (she's a lot younger than I am)," but she said "No, these people are like this with everyone."

Having lived in major cities for most all of our lives, we were not used to people even acknowledging one another.  Like a client of mine recently said, "Where I came from, you didn't make any eye contact with anyone at all, because it was considered offensive, even in traffic."

Now I'm finding myself being more courteous and helpful to others in The Friendliest City I know.

When you move here, you may as well take the chip off your shoulder and throw it away.  The Friendliest City grows on you and there's nothing you can do but go along with it.

Again today, we saw example of people just being nice and discussed it again, and decided that maybe it's just because the people living here are just happier.  No one moves here because they have to, but rather because they want to.  Maybe "it's the climate" that makes it the The Friendliest City you could ever hope for.