Elderly Rudeness
Jan. 14th, 2006 06:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bookzombieI had a couple of those weird moments while out in Reading yesterday which makes you realise that the young do not have the monopoly on bad manners (and, frankly, general weirdness).
1. I was in HMV and the song 'San Quentin' by Johnny Cash was playing and I was singing along to it, sub voce. An elderly man with a walking stick wandered past and directly to me (I assume he must have heard me singing) said, with a cheerful, matter-of-fact tone, "That man had the worst voice I have ever heard. I'm glad he's dead.' I found myself saying something along the lines of 'That's not very nice!' while quickly edging away! I can't help thinking that the history of popular music would be very different if everyone with a less-than perfect voice was done away with...
2. Later, in W.H.Smiths, happily ensconced in the upper floor book selling area. I was about to pass by a set of bookshelves where there was a trolley blocking part of the route. A very elderly woman, left arm swinging in a rather aggressive way was barrelling at speed towards me so I took a step back and to the side to let her through, with a quick 'sorry' (unnecessary apologising is a bad habit I can't get out of). As she passed, not looking at me, she muttered 'So you should be'! So, I politely move out of the way of an elderly person and get abuse. Marvelous.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
pennski recons that she probably didn't even really see me and was probably really cross about something someone said to her 50 years ago, but even so...
All I can say is that if I ever get to be one of those angry, 'I hate the world and especially anyone under 60' sort of people, please, have me put out of my misery!
1. I was in HMV and the song 'San Quentin' by Johnny Cash was playing and I was singing along to it, sub voce. An elderly man with a walking stick wandered past and directly to me (I assume he must have heard me singing) said, with a cheerful, matter-of-fact tone, "That man had the worst voice I have ever heard. I'm glad he's dead.' I found myself saying something along the lines of 'That's not very nice!' while quickly edging away! I can't help thinking that the history of popular music would be very different if everyone with a less-than perfect voice was done away with...
2. Later, in W.H.Smiths, happily ensconced in the upper floor book selling area. I was about to pass by a set of bookshelves where there was a trolley blocking part of the route. A very elderly woman, left arm swinging in a rather aggressive way was barrelling at speed towards me so I took a step back and to the side to let her through, with a quick 'sorry' (unnecessary apologising is a bad habit I can't get out of). As she passed, not looking at me, she muttered 'So you should be'! So, I politely move out of the way of an elderly person and get abuse. Marvelous.
pennski recons that she probably didn't even really see me and was probably really cross about something someone said to her 50 years ago, but even so...All I can say is that if I ever get to be one of those angry, 'I hate the world and especially anyone under 60' sort of people, please, have me put out of my misery!
