I now can take pleasure in going to the local Bank of America and talking to a teller without having a 1 1/2" slab of bullet proof glass stand between us. I've been here two months now and I have not seen one piece of graffiti anywhere.
People here are very pleasant and courteous. When driving around town people actually observe the speed limit and I no longer concern myself with being ran off the road by speeders and frequent lane changers--and yes people here do show respect by using their turn signals.We have two coin shops in town and I was shocked when one of the shops actually leaves it's door wide open for anyone to just walk in.
Absolutely unheard of back in my home town in Victorville, California where our coin shops have to buzz you in through their security door.And both high schools here in Medford don't have metal detectors at the main entrances as do the two high schools back in Cal. Nor do these two Medford high schools require a SWAT team to be present at each home football game as did both high schools back home!
And here's the kicker--My first month here in Medford I went to a local auction which included over 60 whitman albums full of coins. I registered at the auction with just my out-of-state California ID and no deposit or credit card was asked of me. My first win was a complete Peace dollar set in average circulated condition (minus the '21). When the gavel went down a person walked up to me and handed me the album. I immediately said, "I don't want to have to go pay for this now because I will miss out on the several of the other albums coming up." She replied, "Oh no, at our auction we hand out the items immediately to the winning bidders and you can pay for them at anytime during the auction or when the auction concludes."
I won 14 albums worth about $2,600 and they where just sitting in my lap and all they had was an out-of-state license. I just kept thinking that back home in Cal. you can buy a fake drivers license pretty easily (if you know where to go) for just $50 and if I was an unscrupulous person I could have just given a bad license when registering. Do you think back in California an auction company would just hand over $2,600 in coins to someone in a large crowd who was a first time attendee and submitted only a out-of-state license? Of course not.
So I went home happy with my coins and astonished at the realization of how unbelievably different are the two worlds of Medford, Oregon and Victorville, California
Glad to be back on the boards and hello again, Don.
