Where is American Hospitality??

Maybe I'm giving myself away here, but when I was living in the States, I wasn't very hospitable to paid workmen in my house. I would offer them water, of course, but not much else. The couple times I remember offering more, I was flatly refused. It just didn't cross my mind to offer them coffee and a biscuit (of course, that might have more to do with the fact that I still don't know or care to know how to make coffee).

Yet, for the dozen times or so we've had plumbers, insurance adjusters, carpet people, and painters in our home in recent weeks, I don't think one visit has gone by without the landlady offering coffee or tea or juice to the workmen. And I always know if they accepted or not if I hear the whisk at work whisking milk while it's heated on the stove upstairs. I have to say, it was a pretty funny sight on Monday to see 5 plumbers sipping their dainty Dutch cups of coffee. But at least it kept them working...