Fascinated by the different ways people live... when you get to knock at hundreds of doors you would never normally knock at. At one house, the door opened, a noxious vapour escaped and only after it cleared could I make out the pale and speechless denizen who lived in that hydroponic atmosphere. Very hard to launch into a spiel at a moment like that.
Of course there's always an element of 'sorry to disturb your peaceful Saturday afternoon' in this sort of excercise. At one place I knocked and the front door was swung open by a breathless girl who was hastily pulling a wrap around her bare shoulders. 'Oh, uh...' I began. Behind her another girl, likewise quickly pulling on covering, disappeared up the hall. I pretended my focus had never left the front door frame as I launched into my spiel. 'I'm doorknocking for candidate X in the forthcoming council elections and I wonder...' 'No', the girl said with admirable decisiveness and slammed the door in my face. I think I'd seen an exquisite blend of relief and resentment flash over her face. For a brief second, she must have thought they'd been caught by the cuckolded husband, boyfriend, or girlfriend. Nevertheless...they'd been interrupted!
I went back out into the street to relate my experience to a colleague who'd been doorknocking the 'evens' on the other side of the street. Slightly insulted by my curt dismissal, I quickly recovered my self-esteem when he said, 'Oh, how come I don't get to knock on those doors?'
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