This is a subject matter I have been dying to address for quite sometime now. One of the many things I have observed that was “different” about New Yorkers is there nonchalance with picking, or rather, DIGGING in their nose with their bare fingers… in public! I find it so revolting yet, oddly interesting. I have never experienced this action so blatantly displayed as I have during the times I lived and visited NYC.
I used to comment to my old boyfriend quite often about it, as he was also one who thought there was nothing wrong with using his finger to scrape around the inner sanctum of his nose, whenever and wherever the mood striked him. Yes, he was also a New Yorker.
When I was growing up, it was taught to me at a very young age, that it was socially unacceptable and just plain GROSS to be seen digging up your nose with your bare finger. I was taught that “nose picking” was to be done with a tissue and preferably out of the sight of others. But obviously, that is not a lesson that was shared by many others in the NY area. They literally think nothing of it here and they do it anywhere! The train, restaurants, church, bookstores, cabs….and right in front of anyone’s face!
Is it a coincidence that people engage in this act so freely here? Am I tripping or am I really on to something? I often rationalized my observation by telling myself that maybe the reason for the consistent and frequent nose picking sightings in NY was due to how ‘multicultural’ it is. Perhaps, other countries do not frown upon it as we (Americans) do. But then, if that theory reigned true, what was my old boyfriends excuse for doing it because he was certainly American?
I guess I may never gain full understanding about this one topic. Nevertheless, after several years of being disgusted by public nose diggers, I could not hold it in any longer. Thanks for letting me share.
