Martin Gregorie wrote in message . ..

The location I live in may have a small advantage over yours: there
are three or so local clubs I could have joined initially. I was
fortunate that the one I fly with was the first I looked at, it felt
right at my first visit and that impression was not misleading.

There are two, and possibly a third, within a reasonable driving
distance from me. (Reasonable for most people, two miles across town
to the hardware store isn't reasonable to me.) I've been to two of
them, the nearest club and the commercial that I flew from. The one
trip to the club, before I had even taken the introductory ride was a
disaster, I ran into the local asshole right off the bat. The
possible third, a few people have decided to fly there instead of the
operation I was with, but within three months they were back.
(Northern Illinois, megabuck territory, you can smell the money. OR,
as my buddy put it, "You are in one of the weathiest towns on the
planet, you are looking for a way out of there.")

We may be guilty of not always talking to newcomers as much as we
should, but I've never heard put-downs around the flight line.

The "put down" seems to be something we have elevated to an art form,
and honed to perfection, often very cutting. I can be as guilty there
as anyone else, but I usually confine it to something that I see as
gross stupidity. And as I've said before, perhaps I'm more sensitive
to some behaviors than most people, but sometimes I wonder how many
other people also are.