"That would never happen in America. We mostly ignore strangers." Jim Dixon

It depends VERY much on where in the US you live. In Juneau, Alaska, I made up the truism that if someone who meets you on the sidewalk doesn't smile, it's because they don't get to live here.

And it is just about true. (Except at lunchtime; don't get between an Alaskan and his or her lunch. :)

I can see that in a big city one needs to somewhat control one's space and so it is proper/accepted to pretend you are not sharing the space with anyone else.

That just is not true in small towns.

I used to be the live-in manager/docent of a state-owned house museum. Every year one or two volunteer docents came from all over the country to help, earn a stipend and experience Alaska.

For a couple of years it was a Chicagoan, a retired woman who had taken up photography with a vengeance. She came home one day with this story:

She had photographed from a vantage point up the hill and then made her way to a lower level (Juneau is a hilly town) and set up her tripod.

Then a garbage truck squealed to a stop in the intersection and the driver called out to her: If you want a better spot, go up the hill.

And, she said, here was this Chicago woman standing in the intersection discussing photography with a garbage hauler.

That, she said, would NEVER happen in Chicago where you might not even know your next floor neighbor. (She had lived on the 17th floor of a high rise building in downtown for 37 years.)