Thursday 22 January 2009

Chivalry?

I was in my local small supermarket the other day. I had just a few items in my wee basket and I headed for the inevitable queue. As I neared the end of it, a young lad arrived at the same time with, I assume, his grandfather.
The young lad, who was no more than 10, stepped to one side, allowing me to go in front of him.
I grinned, said thank you and waited.
Then I heard "what did you do that for?" from the grandfather.
"I let the lady go first" said the little boy.
At which the grandfather let out a very loud exasperated sigh and said "For goodness sakes, next time just stay where you are in the queue!"

It's good to see that the children of our future have such exemplary role models.

I would also like you all to be very proud of me for biting my lip. And my tongue. And possibly inserting my fist into my mouth to prevent me from speaking and loudly berating the unchivalrous grandfather.

By the way, I cannot insert my fist wholly into my mouth. I had a friend once, LaLa (which was not her name - her parents were much kinder than that) but she could get her whole fist into her mouth. Apart from the day she dropped a window on her hand, then her fingers resembled sausages and didn't even nearly begin to make a fist, let alone fit in her mouth.
In fact as I recall, she and I were covering reception, she sat there with her sausage hand and I slid about merrily on my wheeled office chair, momentarily forgetting that there was a gap in the carpet tiles. I was sliding at speed when one wheel hit that gap, the chair came to a sudden, abrupt halt and catapulted me onto the floor.
I'm a picture of grace and elegance.

2 comments:

Sleepydumpling said...

It's my firm belief that by smiling and thanking that boy, he will remember you far longer than he remembers his Grandfather's butthead attitude. It's why I ALWAYS take the time to thank people and show courtesy for their good actions.

Flibbertigibbet said...

I couldn't agree more.
I think I watched too much of that old TV program Due South as I started saying "Thank You Kindly" all the time!
That's stuck and I'm still really polite, it makes a change in an impolite world doesn't it?!