Chivalry is dead, and common courtesy lies a-mouldering in the grave.
Mrs. HM does not expect special treatment. She counts herself ahead when the young person who enters an establishment ahead of her does not slip through the portal like Indiana Jones in the Temple of Doom, and then pull the door shut in Mrs. HM's face. Nor does she expect to be given upsies in line. But she DOES assume that customers will be taken in first-come, first-served order.
RumpusHoles have a different agenda. Like the Big Bubba who took my turn in the Gas Station Chicken Store on Monday.
I had walked in and was two steps from the counter with my two scratchers to cash in. Big Bubba, perhaps 30 years old, wearing jeans, a white t-shirt, and square-toe cowboy boots, was coming up the soda fountain aisle. He had to be at least six steps away. Six of HIS giant steps.
Big Bubba strode to the counter and put down his soda and got out his money. Of course I stopped in my tracks, lest the wake of air following him knock me over. I stepped back by the stack of Michelob Light cases, to let Big Bubba complete his transaction. He was paying for his soda, and for gas.
You'd think that wouldn't take long at all. But you'd be wrong. Big Bubba took his red tickets for the gas drawing, and STOOD AT THE COUNTER while tearing them off one-by-one. THEN he walked past me to the collection box, LEAVING HIS SODA AND TICKET STUBS ON THE COUNTER.
The cashier was fed up with Big Bubba's antics. Her eyes met mine through the plexiglass.
"Are you ready?"
"Sure."
I stepped up. Made a big to-do about trying to see the scratchers in the glass case under Big Bubba's soda and scattered ticket stubs. I actually needed to look, to see if the MO MONEY MONDAY new tickets were in the case. They were not.
Big Bubba came back. Rather than say, "Oh, sorry," and move his stuff out of the way of ME, the next paying customer who should have been ahead of him... he started quizzing the cashier.
"I just put the wrong tickets in the box. I was supposed to put the other ones. Can you get them out?"
"No."
"I guess it won't matter? Because there are numbers on both sets. So I will still have the numbers to show it was mine if it's drawn."
"Yes, you should keep your ticket numbers."
"But will that be all right? To have the wrong ones in the box? Will they still get drawn?"
"I don't know. You can always come back and see the number that was drawn on Monday, and check your numbers."
"But will they still be okay?"
"I really don't know. You'd have to ask Man Owner about that."
Sweet Gummi Mary! That guy just wouldn't give up! I'm surprised he didn't ask her to burp him and wipe his butt! Once your transaction is over, it's OVER! Get back in line and wait if you have questions about YOUR mistake!
I wish I'd been mobile enough to keep him from cutting in on my rightful place in line. And that I'd had a string of 20 one-dollar tickets to check, none of which I'd bothered to scrape off the scanning code area...
6 comments:
Jerk. He needs a good comeuppance! Of course, nowadays you never know who might have a weapon on them. Everyone seems so angry, and it takes so little to trigger them.
Kathy,
He reminds me of a certain type of guy. Not necessary his fault, but due to his upbringing. Here's the background:
When I taught at Steelville, a young colleague married her sweetheart. She said married life took some getting used-to.
"I have to make sure I have his midnight snack available. Until the day he moved out, his mom always set an alarm, and woke him up at midnight for a piece of pie, or slice of cake. She was afraid he would starve overnight. Now he expects a midnight snack. He can get it himself, as long as I have it ready."
His sense of entitlement is clearly stronger than any good manners he might have been taught.
I'm astonished at that midnight snack story.
River,
That dude actually acted like I WAS IN HIS WAY when he came back and butted-in, asking about HIS mistake with the tickets!
We were all astonished at the midnight snack story. She told it at the teacher lunch table.
My mother-in-law told me that her children did not ask to be born and with that in mind she felt like she should do everything to make their lives easier. I thanked her for raising a self-absorbed a$$hole. I told her I must have stood at the gates of haven yelling "PICK ME, PICK ME". I suffer no illusions about who is responsible for my happiness and well being. His sister is very needy, as well. My brother-in-law and I are often found serving our spouses while they wait!
Kathy,
Farmer H has the nerve to tell me that I AM SPOILED! Yet when he points that finger, three more fingers are pointing back at himself...
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