Northshore Norahs

I was at Bayshore this morning.  I had just gone to the pet store in the area to stock up for the queen and I thought I'd get Nexium at Target.  I cut through Kohls and when I walked down the street of stores on my way, I saw maybe about 5  or 6 cops talking to a woman.  I thought why so many and should I be on this side of the street?  I heard one of the cops tell another that he couldn't believe that this woman got spat on.  

Someone spit on another person?  Wow.  I hurried past the police woman and the woman who said the woman was about to punch her and pulled her arm back.  She was a black woman dressed casually dressed in sweats outside of a Bath and Body Works store.

My mom asked was it another black woman?  I know.  That sounds like implicit bias.  I actually didn't think it was so I guess that made me biased as well.  I said I didn't know but my guess is that it wasn't.  There was an incident during Covid where some woman spit on a kid during the protests.  I think she kicked a cop too.  

When I worked with the managing attorney who lived in the area, she called these women Northshore Nancys.  I asked her to correct that since that was my mom's name and the managing attorney was a bitch.  And a Northshore Norah.

I kind of got the idea of what was meant by that back in the early 90s when I worked for Boston Store. I got asked to work at their Bayshore location in the shoe department and even then, the other employees warned me about the Northshore Norahs.  The entitled women who thought the world owed them everything.  One of my managers managed that location for awhile and lived in the area and agreed.  They were a special kind of bitch and would let you know it.  We had them on the southside.  Westside.  It didn't matter.  This northshore Norah had a bigger pocketbook.  Well it wasn't their pocketbook.  It was their husband's pocketbook. 

I did kind of worry when I went to my old nail salon that I would encounter those types.  Spoiled and snotty.  Shockingly, I was wrong.  I think the owner would have kicked that type out.  In fact, I was surprised when other women would talk to me or ask me how I'm doing.  

I went door to door in the north shore neighborhoods during the 2004 campaign and the women couldn't have been nicer to me when they answered the door.  One even offered me water because it was a hot day and I declined. 

Then there was Lois who acted appalled that I even stepped foot near her neighborhood or in a business.  She acted like I was beneath most of the time and treated me like a servant.  On the flip side, there was Sosie who would happily say hello to me in a store even though if I felt like running away or intruding on her if we ran into each other on accident.

I see the type that you would call a Norah at the salons I've gone to on that side of town.  I went to Neroli for years and I felt like I was out of my realm with some of their clients.  I felt like I couldn't keep up with what they were charging either.  Occasionally I do go to a place that will do eyebrow waxing.  It's kind of a high end salon for women and they offer facials, other services that are definitely not in my price range.  I see the Norahs there in their yoga pants getting pissed off about their tipping policies or not being able to get the person they want. I go for the one with the least experience because it costs less and I know how to use Venmo.  Dumbasses.

It's kind of a mixed bag in certain neighborhoods. I understood what that managing attorney meant and she fit the bill.  Everything was a competition with her and she was impressed with people who had money and treated people like me badly.  Not everyone is like that in nicer neighborhoods.

I still think of the woman that approached me in Metro Market and apologized for not paying attention when I crossed the street.  I had stopped because she breezed through the walkway without looking and she saw me point that day when I said you're not paying attention!  I didn't flip her off. I kind of laughed at it because I thought, there goes another person who needs to go back to driving school.  She was so apologetic about it and it was important to her that she made it right.

You can't judge a person by a neighborhood.  People who have a nice home will not look down at you because you live in an apartment.

Sounds like some may spit on you.