Fort McMurray Dating Scene, Round Two

So there is another instalment in the YouTube videos about the local dating scene. If you've read earlier entries in this blog you saw Episode One, where we are introduced to Steve and his delightful attempts to pick up a woman. In this new instalment Steve stalks a waitress at a local bar...and yes, I've seen this happen, too. If you live here, so have you. Check it out:

Once again, liquidtrendz, the creator of these videos, has hit the nail squarely on the head. Not all men here are like Steve, as I said in my previous post. Enough of them are, though, to make this video astonishingly funny, and, sadly, accurate. Steve is obviously a stereotype - but like so many stereotypes there is a grain of truth in it.

My favourite line from this video? "This is not real work. I drive truck at site. That is real work". That is truly the attitude and belief some have here. Are you a doctor, lawyer, engineer, real estate agent, retail clerk, or, god forbid, a waitress? Not real work in the eyes of some in Fort McMurray. Real work means "working at site" and preferably in a manual labour position (managers and the like? Not real work, either). It's almost a reverse discrimination based on employment. In other cities people may look down on those who work in blue collar jobs, and here it's the opposite. It's yet another one of those things that make this city a bit topsy-turvy and just different from anywhere else I've ever lived (and I've lived in one of Canada's largest cities, and in a very small town). In some ways this city is like any other city in the country, and yet in some ways it is absolutely unique. I doubt any other city has a character quite like Steve that is so readily identifiable and resonates with almost every person in the city. I do rather wonder if the "Steves" of this city watch the video and recognize themselves, though. Or perhaps they laugh at the other "Steves", not realizing that they have in fact become this stereotypical character?

It's an intriguing city, this Fort McMurray. Now I'm going to go pick up some milk from the local convenience store - which twenty do you figure I should pay them with?