Thursday - July 21, 2011

just good manners

I think there might be something wrong with my puter or maybe the connection.

It seems to be running quickly today. Like, really quick.

JUST GOOD MANNERS
July 21, 11

I was raised, as I’m certain many of you were, to show respect to the elderly.

Whether or not they earn it never came into question.  You weren’t supposed to answer back to older people or be rude to them.  So generally I continue with that idea although as I’ve grown older myself, from time to time I have felt justified in telling another older person to buzz off.  As I’ve grown older, I have noticed that old didn’t mean nice in every case.  Some old folks really are just thoughtless people and were so no doubt as younger people.  I never held a door for someone just to hear them say thank you.  It has always been an automatic gesture.  I’m not in so big a hurry that I can’t let someone in line ahead of me when they have little and I may have much. Or, if they’re much older then I am.  Why not make it easier for an old person using a
cane or just looking tired and aged?  But I have to say, the other day when I let an old lady in front of me I thought, never again. Screw em.  It doesn’t pay to be nice.

Well of course I was wrong.  It was simply the thought of that moment and not all people are like the wrinkled old coffin dodger who tried to edge her way in front as though she had some kind of god given right to be there.

When I went for my knee X-ray Tues., I entered a corridor and had to move around some slower moving folks taking up the very center of the isle.  One person in a wheel chair and to his left a guy with a crutch.  I don’t know why it is, but it always seems like folks like the center. Have you ever noticed that ppl on bicycles do that as well?  Anyway, I walked around the bunch in the center and found myself behind a very old couple and she seeming to be the worst for wear of the two, and moved around them as well.

By the time I got to the check in counter there were two ahead of me, with the receptionist on the phone.  So the wait was about five minutes when another lady who was working on something behind the desk, took pity on the line and took the papers that had to be handed in.  Just about the time I was ready and at the desk, that old couple I mentioned caught up to the growing line, and the wrinkled old crone was working her way around my right side.  It was obvious she was trying to get her papers in first, and since she was old and was limping a bit, I didn’t think losing a few more minutes was any big deal.  So I stepped to one side and waved her on.

Wouldn’t you think she could have had the courtesy to say thank you?  Nope.
She went to the front like she owned the place without a glance back.

Chances are pretty damn good that in the same circumstances I’d move aside again.
Doesn’t take too much effort to be polite and anyway, where the hell else have I got to go?

-30-

Posted by peiper     on 07/21/2011 at 12:10 PM   
Filed Under: • Personal •  
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