Of Airports and People

As I wearily rolled my luggage out the front door of the airport in Halifax heading for the Park n fly pick-up, I breathed in the tang of fresh air with a hint of ocean. You don't get that at SFO or O'Hare or even Toronto or Montreal. It's that gentle scent of Nova Scotia that reminds me I'm home.

What really struck me though, was the older couple standing on the sidewalk, well, the fellow was in a wheel chair. They were talking animatedly. As I walked past the woman looks up at me with a big smile on her face and says "dear, how many loonies in a roll? Is it twenty?" I nodded and replied I think so, I wasn't sure.

She had no idea who I was or even if I was Canadian, let alone spoke English. But she asked. Just like that. I was drawn into a conversation, asked in that way to take part. There are precious few places in the world today where that happens. Certainly not in a major city in the U.S. or Canada. But then, Halifax is a major city on the Atlantic coast. Sure, less than a million people, but still not a small town.

It's just one of those things. People here will share something with you, a way of quickly connecting. And it seems that more often than talking about the weather, we like to share a little joke or amusing quip or settle a friendly debate. Human connections. That's Nova Scotia, that's Atlantic Canada.