You Meet the Nicest People

Those of you who follow us on Instagram (@bettywouldlovethat) know that our mom Betty was a master at chatting with anyone and everyone and making new friends wherever she went. On our most recent trips to Fredericton and Charlottetown, we followed in her footsteps and have a few more delightful stories to tell about the interesting people we met.

Bar None

At the risk of sounding like we spent the whole trip sitting in Bars, we did meet some interesting Bartenders. I think we felt our age when we found ourselves encouraging Bartender Milo, who had quit College to “make music” and wanted us to make sure we listened to his new hip-hop song coming out on iTunes and Apple Music in a few days. Despite not being big hip-hop fans, we did try to find the song on iTunes but were not successful. Sorry Milo.

Then there was Liam who told us he was quitting Bartending to move to Toronto to be with his girlfriend. We felt it was our responsibility to ask him some probing questions to make sure he was doing the right thing. I’m not sure he appreciated all our unsolicited questions and advice, but he did give us extra big glasses of Prosecco before he went off shift.

Taxi!

As you can imagine we took quite a few cabs over the course of our travels and one Cabbie was quite memorable. He was Santa personified with his snowy white hair, long beard and roly poly physique. The ride started out absolutely silent and then out of the blue he started rapid fire listing off a number of TV shows wanting to know if we had seen them. They were all of the CSI, Law and Order, NCIS variety and fortunately Little Sis is a big fan and so she was able to carry the conversation. I think if he ever wants to have a career as Santa, he will need to broaden his repertoire of conversation topics.😂

He also told us about a meat-shoot that happened at a nearby pub. I think he saw the horrified look on my face and quickly explained that it involved teams of people “shooting” darts with the winners taking home various cuts of meat. Not something you hear about every day…

Alice’s Restaurant

One of the things we like to do is find out of the way places where locals are likely to hang out. We found such a place in Fredericton right across the street from our hotel, called the Sunshine Diner. We knew we were in the right place when the sign inside the door said “Serve Yourself Coffee and Have a Seat.”
We found our seats and when the waitress came around I expected her to say “kiss my grits” as she bore a striking resemblance to the character Flo from that old TV show Alice. She seemed to know all the customers and their orders and spent time chatting and kibitzing with everyone. She clearly ruled the roost.

Sitting in the booth next to us was Wendy and her mother. We got to chatting a bit and they were delightful. When they heard that we were on our way to Charlottetown, Wendy told us about a restaurant along the way that had the best salad bar ever. Unfortunately, leaving the highway to find it would have compromised our travel schedule so we gave it a pass.

Her mother also eagerly participated in our conversation telling us about some of the trips she had been on with her husband. When she said that she was glad she didn’t go with him on his last trip, it took us a minute to figure out that she meant he had passed away.😬 Both she and Wendy thought this was hilarious, probably because of the confused looks on our faces.

Coffee Anyone?

In Charlottetown we also found a cute little breakfast place called Linda’s Cafe. We were met by a friendly server, shown a seat and got our orders placed. After our food came it started to get quite busy and it was clear that there was only one server and she was having a hard time keeping up. Desperate for a coffee refill I decided to take matters into my own hands and grabbed the coffee pot and filled our cups. While I was up I figured I might as well see if anyone else wanted more coffee and filled their cups too, which led of course to more chatting with the other patrons. A classic Betty move.😁 Shortly thereafter our server came out of the kitchen and thanked me profusely for pouring the coffee. This led to us chatting and finding out that she was from Sri Lanka We assumed she was Linda the owner, but soon found out that her name was Renu and she has worked at the cafe since the day she arrived in Charlottetown several years ago.

You Say It’s Your Birthday

It just so happened that the day of the 5k race was my 71st birthday. Being the good sisters that they are, Big and Little Sis took me out for a lovely birthday dinner. The staff at the restaurant knew it was my birthday and Big Sis asked if they did anything special like gather the staff to sing Happy Birthday. Our server said they do not sing, but that I was entitled to a free dessert as the birthday girl. When dinner was done our server took my birthday dessert order and soon it was delivered our table by another staff member.

Big Sis took it upon herself to ask him if he would sing Happy Birthday and he replied that he couldn’t because he only knew the words in Spanish. Not to be deterred Big Sis said it would be lovely if he sang it in Spanish to which he replied that he would return in five minutes. Long past five minutes later, with our Spanish birthday singer no where in sight, we decided to leave. Big Sis encountered him on our way out and he apologized profusely and said he just couldn’t do it. The poor guy is probably scarred for life.

The Nicest People

As much as our main focus was on walking a 5K, these conversations proved to be both memorable and endearing, and were often the highlight of our day. Maritimers are friendly, helpful and welcoming. They made our visit so much better by just being themselves. No “airs” or aloofness, just plain old “down home hospitality” with a touch of laughter thrown in for good measure. They are truly The Nicest People, and we thank them for adding so much fun and genuine merriment to our trip.