Seems the old people were out in full force today as I went down to my local shopping block (they must be shopping after church). And from today, coupled with experience from other harrowing encounters, I have surmised that in general, old people are quite rude.
My first encounter with them was when I was driving about the Warehouse carpark. Generally in a carpark, pedestrians stay out of the middle of the driving lanes, where cars go, but old people seem to completely disregard this fact, ambling towards me as I cruised about for a park. The normal reaction for a pedestrian to perform when a car is coming towards them is to get out of the way. But this old couple seemed to be completely oblivious towards my car’s presence. Something had grabbed the old dude’s attention of to the left and he was fixated on it, ignoring the fact he was cutting off half of the lane with his aging body.
I figured he was just a stupid old person, the only one I should encounter today. Unfortunately, the carpark was fuller than usual, increasing the proportion of mindless old people. Cursing at him, I parked my car and went into the Warehouse for my supplies.
I should have noticed the number of wrinkled old people entering and exiting the store with me, but it wasn’t until I got into line that my frustration rose. Normally I make a point of avoiding lines in which people are trying to purchase clothing, as they tend to take a while. But I didn’t notice the short elderly lady with some nasty looking shirts in front of me in what I thought was a short and quick line. Something in their withered minds must make them regard time as so much less precious. Perhaps it’s because they’ve seen so much, or perhaps it’s because everything took longer ‘in their day.’ But something about old people and buying clothes causes them to negotiate and haggle over fixed store prices because ’something’s missing’, or ‘there’s a bright tag on that there tunic.’
This particular old lady was fussed because she had two identical cyan shirts, but one was missing the singlet so she wanted a price reduction. I swear these people purposely search for these sorts of things; missing singlets, broken labels, etc. During the whole ordeal, she briefly turns back to me and utters “sorry.” Fuck you, you hag. You ain’t sorry. You’re happy you’ve managed to keep the poor checkout operator busy for as long as you did. Perhaps the crone craves the interaction, the feeling of power over the store workers, knowing that as the consumer, she’s always right. “I demand respect because I have lived longer!” Well that doesn’t mean you can disrespect everyone else.
Getting through my transaction at a fraction of the time, I zipped away to the other store, thankfully free of anyone. But the next one, a veggie shop was unfortunately quite busy. I grabbed my goods in short order and proceeded to wait in line. But who should upset the sanctity of the line? None other than some granny with a trolley who happened to be finished with her shop and decided that she’ll be next to be served. She did all this while walking past the line, glancing at the befuddled group of Asians at the head of the line who were unsure of what they should do. What’s worse is at the end of her transaction, and she was presented with the total, she almost sounded like she was going to debate the cost. “$18.70?!” Don’t you fucking dare dispute that, or I’ll destroy you. After realising they had been wronged, the Asians moved closer to the counter, ensuring they were next.
As the transactions were processed, more people started to line up. Well, lines up, as there was more tahn one line forming, thanks to other old people starting their own line just behind the Asians. As I was originally behind them, I was right annoyed at these fuckers, but thankfully the checkout server was aware I was next and motioned me over. But the first old person in the impromptu ‘line’ was not happy with this and made a point of standing right next to me as I went through the transaction, fixing me with an evil glare as though she had been wronged.
At the end of all this, I figure this: sure young people can be insolent and rude, but old people are manipulatively rude. They do things which are flat out crimes against social law, but act as though they are above it. Perhaps they simply forget social laws, or perhaps they are envious and want to piss off those who still have full control of their bladder.
This entry was posted on Sunday, January 24th, 2010 at 11:55 am and is filed under Mind of Me. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
2/7/10 @ 7:00 pm #
I just noticed you filed this entry under PhD Project. I am amused.