What Is WRONG With These People????

Seriously, I wonder. How many generations can lead poisoning affect a population? On Saturday I had my first kind of “nervous, scary” moment here. Sure, I’ve had countless annoying, frustrating moments – but nothing scary.

I finally had the traditional moving vehicle scam tried on me. G and I were driving back from the support site on the SS77 and this car came barrelling up behind us, honking and flashing its lights. So, I moved over into the slow lane to let him by. He pulled ahead and then slowed down to about 60 KM an hour (that is SLOW – 37 mph.) Like a normal human I pulled out and went around, keeping at my constant speed of 100 KM an hour (62 mph.) As I went around the guy did his “thing.” I didn’t see it, but traditionally they throw a tennis ball or something at you. I heard the “whump!” but I KNEW I did NOT hit him and that it was his scam, so I kept going. He pulled up beside us, gesturing wildly, trying to get me to pull over.

Well, there was no way in hell I was going to pull over. Sure, I have my beatin’ stick and pepper spray, but those always come up short against crazy and gun. Plus, I had G with me. And I KNEW I didn’t hit him so he could just bite me. So, he chased us, flashing and honking and gesturing and pulling along side, behind and ahead for about 15 minutes. I just kept driving along at my normal speed, ignoring him, and making plans of action. (Ok, where is the nearest person I know that I can drive to? Where is the nearest police station? Etc.) Finally, he gave up and sped away to try it on someone else. It was a nerve-wracking 15 minutes!!

Later that evening I was telling the ladies at the potluck what happened. Turns out it is very common. They want you to stop and as soon as you do they demand 400 euro since you “hit” them. Usually, just to get the guy to leave them alone they give them what money they have. They target lone females and especially lone foreigner females. Luckily, I turned out to be a “hard target.” But still….

One of my friends here is married to an Italian. She just had her 2nd baby and told us that her doctor said it was fine for her to drink ¼ carafe of wine a NIGHT. If this is what the people really do here, then I don’t recommend that course of action because there really is something not right with Neapolitans. Be it left over lead poisoning from the Roman days or too much wine during gestation – the problem remains.