It's often remarked that there are two types of people in this world. Then, the speaker goes on to propose two groupings that can be made (and generally adds a value judgment to one group or the other). Sometimes the speaker is right, but there can often be gray zones within the groupings.
Tonight, tho, I did think of two groups that most Americans can be split into. You've got the type of people who wait for someone to enter the house when they drop someone off and the type of people that drive away while the person is still walking to the door.
Most of the time, I'm a waiter. You want to make sure your friend made it in safely. If I regularly drop a friend off and know that s/he'll be safe, I don't think I wait, but I generally like to watch the friend enter the house and wave goodbye. It's just nice to know that you haven't left someone to sit on the doorstep due to a missing key.
I'm trying to think if being a non-waiter or a waiter says something about the driver's personality. I don't think all non-waiters are thoughtless or anything. I've got several nice friends who are non-waiters. I think it's mostly a timing/attitude issue. If you assume your friends are self-reliant, and you'd like to get home, there's no real reason to wait. How often do people really have an issue getting into their home anyway?
Then again, waiting is nice. It says that you care about the person and want to ensure the person's safety. I can't think of a downside here, unless you think that the waiter is over-protective.
On the subject of cars, there's another arbitrary split you can make (especially when dealing with older or more basic cars). There are those people who unlock the passenger door first and those people who unlock the driver's door first. If you're dealing with the former, there are also passengers who stay put and passengers who lean over and unlock the driver's door. One of my English teachers used to warn guys never to go on a second date with a woman that didn't lean over and unlock his door (or at least try) before the guy got to it. I'm an unlocker, and I've had several guys impressed that I had the presence of mind to return the favor of having my door unlocked. (note: I don't generally unlock the passenger door first, but that's because I've got remote keyless entry. But I have unlocked the passenger door first when opening someone else's car). Thankfully, my English teacher's suggestion has earned me big bonus points.
So, readers, what are your thoughts on these "two different kinds of people" issues? Merited thoughts, or lame? Any judgment on the non-waiters? What about the unlockers?
PS Judgment is properly spelled without the middle e. It's a word I consistently spell wrong (doesn't offer occur -- to be fair, I used to spell definitely wrong all the time). Now that firefox has spellcheck, I'm able to catch regular errors I make.