When I was a kid, I was always taught to mind my Ps and Qs. It meant that I should say “please”, “thank you”, “you’re welcome”, not interrupt people when they were speaking, and be as respectful as possible. Of course, “reminding” me sometime required my father to lightly smack my knuckles with a spoon when I interrupted him at the dinner table. Some days that’s a practice I’d dearly like to inflict on some of the people in the city.
It seems that somewhere along the way, we forgot how to be respectful, both in general and to each other. Not a day goes by that someone doesn’t push by me and not say “excuse me”. Or walk through a door I’ve held open for them without saying “thank you”. My mother always insisted that people notice these things, but I never really believed it until recently. Maybe I’m getting old.
But if I’m getting old then I’m fully prepared to take on the role of a crotchety old man. I’ve taken to yelling “you’re welcome!” or “no, you’re right, excuse me!” Sometimes I get an embarrassed look or an apology, but more alarming is the number of times that people don’t notice the comment at all, or consciously choose to ignore it.
It might just be that I like to kvetch, or it maybe Binkley was right: the world has gone to hell in a hand basket since David Lee Roth left Van Halen.