Have any of you had experiences similar to this:

After several years in Germany and pursuing both undergraduate and graduate studies, I returned to my home town in rural northern Florida for a visit. There I encountered several of my old buddies with whom I had hunted, fished, and played sports. I was genuinely glad to see them and attempted to strike up a simple conversation among friends. In several cases the response, shown by behavior, but not in words, seemed to say: "Hold on there, buddy. You are not the same person we knew. You have been outside and may have been contaminated by new information and thoughts. And, you know us too well -- warts and all.. That makes you a risk I do not want to take I'll keep my distance."