Yahoo News Ebola: Dallas Shuns Panic As World Watches
When the man in hospital scrubs took his stool at the bar for lunch, his buddies jokingly shuffled away from him.
"Get away from us, man," they yelled. "Haven't you heard of the ebola?"
Their chuckling died down and they turned to the giant TV showing, oddly, the European Championship qualifier between Wales and Cyprus and continued drinking.
A few seats away another hospital worker declared: "This is how Dallas deals with a crisis. Through beer."
It is some measure of the phlegmatic reaction in this giant Texas city to the arrival of ebola on their doorstep.
The local, national and international media has flooded a city that is America's front line in the fight against the deadly virus.
It is fair to say they haven't found much evidence of panic.
Christine Carey, a neighbour of ebola victim Nina Pham, told me of the "mass hysteria" when news of the nurse's case broke at a craft fair over the weekend. If so, it died down pretty quickly.
Miss Pham's other neighbours on Marquita Avenue in East Dallas have been besieged by reporters in the days since. They describe a quiet young woman they don't know well but who always says "hello" as she walked her King Charles Spaniel, Bentley.
Some knew she worked as a nurse and agreed with the sentiment of their city's mayor Mike Rawlings that she was a "hero" for trying to save Liberian ebola victim Thomas Eric Duncan.
"Are you worried?" another young woman was asked as she walked her dog. "Of course, but they're doing everything they can to stop it spreading it further."
As she spoke, more trucks containing hazardous materials protection equipment pulled around the back of Miss Pham's apartment block. They are incongruous on this quiet, tree-lined middle class street.
Many of the houses and apartments have their blinds and curtains closed, their owners having decided to leave either because of ebola or the media.
"If somebody was going to have it in my neighbourhood, that's probably the best person because she's a health care professional and knew exactly what to do," Carleen Guerrero told The Dallas Morning News.
Even at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, where Mr Duncan died and Miss Pham fights for her life, life continues largely as normal.
Ambulances have been diverted away from the hospital's emergency room since the weekend as a precaution.
Miss Pham is reported to have been talking to her family on the phone and Skype. She has been sent a video of her beloved Bentley to reassure her that he is alive and well.
Back on Marquita Avenue, Tommy the trash collector joked that he wouldn't be picking up the biohazard bins outside Miss Pham's home.
He offered this home spun Dallas philosophy on dealing with life's twists and turns: "You never know what's in the next can, man."
