A recent query from “Perplexed in Suburbia” asked why people under the age of 50 don’t return friendly “hellos.”

I posited that this might be a regional issue, but also asked readers if my generation has raised a generation of “rude-niks.”

The responses flowed in, and I am sharing a representative sample.

While every theory suggested is valid, I think it’s vital to understand that we never really know what others are going through, which is a great reason to be friendly, regardless of the reaction.

I’d say the dynamic isn’t generational. People in urban neighborhoods don’t want to risk taking on new relationships too carelessly … they ain’t got the time! But out in rural-ville, loneliness is the threat.

It takes a bit of living to see that. Almost without exception, my older neighbors make eye contact, smile, and say hello. I believe the younger ones will do so eventually.

My theory is that we raised our children to be so worried about stranger abductions that they reflexively avoid strangers to this day.When you raise a generation of children to be paranoid, this is the result.

 I remember my own Mom, born in 1922 and having since passed away, telling me, “I smile and say ‘Hello,’ if they don’t smile back I just say, ‘the hell with them.” It still makes me smile.

I’m late responding to the discussion of why some people don’t respond to a friendly “hello” on the street, but part of the reason people might not respond is because we don’t hear them! I’ve got noise-canceling earbuds, and when I’m out and about I’m almost always listening to something. There have been a couple of times when my hair was hiding my ears and I didn’t notice someone was speaking to me. I’m sure they thought I was being rude until I took my earbuds out.