Breaking The Queue

The current brouhaha over the Hispanic lady who was derided for cutting in line at a JCPenney store here in Louisville brought to mind something that happened to me a few years back.

I happened to be in Tblisi, the capital of Soviet Georgia, with a group of American lawyers and judges, on a legal exchange program.  One evening, our Intourist guides had scheduled a trip to a folk-dancing performance for our group.  I conspired with Mr. Justice William Fones, of the Tennessee Supreme Court, to skip out on the folk-dancing, in search of some higher culture.

We read in the paper that a touring company from the Bolshoi would be performing Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet at the local opera house.  The service desk at our hotel informed us that all the tickets had been sold out months ago, and that seeing the ballet would be impossible.  Bill Fones and I decided to take a cab to the opera house and see if we could find some cancellations or ticket scalpers.

When we arrived at the little opera house (pre-revolutionary, Czarist Baroque décor; an absolute jewel), we found a line of about 20 Soviet citizens who were also trying to score some tickets.

We went to the end of the line, naturally, and as I was talking to Justice Fones, a Georgian gentlemen ahead of us in line, overheard us, and turned to us, asking, “Are you English?”  We told him we were Americans, and a broad smile formed on his face.  “You should not wait in line.  You are our guests,“  he replied, in somewhat broken English.

Escorting us to the head of the line, he pointed to us, explaining to the rest of the people in the queue, “Amerikanski!  Amerikanski!”  Everybody in line smiled at us.  Imagine what would happen in New York, if a Russian tourist did the same thing.

The girl in the ticket booth sold us 2 tickets, second row, center aisle, for about six bucks each.  Of course, we thoroughly enjoyed the show.

It has been my experience that folks in other countries—the old Soviet Union countries in particular—treat foreigners with a level of hospitality and respect that is not as common in our country.  I don’t know why.