Speaking of previous generations…
Old people really bug me. Except for children, I have never yet seen such selfishness in any people group as in the generations that are in their 60’s on up. With all the retirement homes around here, the neighborhood I live in contains a large concentration of elderly, so I’m probably suffering an undo amount of irritation. I can think of three times specifically and many more generally of how rude they are. They act as if they are the only ones who exist in any given situation.
Zoe and I were at Thriftway the other day. She waited in line to taste test one of their goodies. Just as she reached out to receive her treat, this old gaffer inserted himself right in front of her and grabbed his own, stood there and chatted with the clerk with no intention of moving any time in the near future. He didn’t even acknowledge her existence or anyone else’s for that matter. Eventually, with his mouth full of samples, he finally sauntered away to dominate elsewhere.
Another day at Target, Zoe needed to return something, took her number and stood in line behind the one customer before her. Never mind the queue, even before the other gal had finished, this prim and proper octogenarian barged right in front of Zoe and placed her own stuff on the counter as if no one else was even in the store! It wouldn’t have mattered if the clerk’s hair had been on fire, all the planets revolved around her.
Now here’s the icing on the cake: For three years I have been mowing up mystery doo-doo in my lawn. Finally one night a week ago, I caught this old timer from down the block giving his canine free reign to do his business as far up as my front door. I’ve seen him go by before, but I couldn’t believe it when I saw him waiting in the road while the dog squatted before my picture window! I threw on all the lights and firmly requested that he keep his animal off my lawn. He just shrugged and they toddled off into the dark.
Its one thing for children to act selfishly, they’re learning how to behave in society. But the narcissism of the elders in our land truly sickens me. After 60 or 70 years, they ought to be models of love, compassion, patience and common sense. To have lived that long and not have grown up is tragic. If you ask me, it’s all their fault our country is so whacked.
February 27th, 2005 at 10:38 pm
Patsy. You can’t ever get old. You won’t like it.
I actually look forward to wearing whatever I want, saying whatever I want, and doing whatever I want all day long if I want. I just hope I never turn into one of those people that repeats themselves over and over again and holds people hostage in conversations about themselves…(oh, wait, crap! I do that now!!!) Like I always say… I want to live to be 100, then die doing something stupid like snowboarding or skydiving! Whoo-hoo! Bring it!!!
February 28th, 2005 at 9:51 am
As long as you are not rude. You can be as querky as you want, but if you are rude, you’ve had it.
February 28th, 2005 at 10:34 pm
Are you going to beat me up? Old lady fight! Whoo hoo…mano y mano. Cane vs. walker…bring it on baby! Whatcha got?
No, I’m sure I will be a very nice funky elderly lady…and so will you.
February 28th, 2005 at 10:35 pm
p.s. We should all live so that the pastor won’t have to lie at our funeral and so that people will actually miss us after we die.
March 1st, 2005 at 5:09 am
Exactly. Amen. (Personally, I’m gonna wear a lot of big jazzy hats…but not all at once. Well.., maybe all at once. You never know at that age.)
October 4th, 2005 at 2:01 pm
OK- I know this is an old rant on old people-but I just found it….
But here is my 2cents-
Old non-Christians are nasty, unhappy, narcissistic, cranky and hard hearted for the most part. Think about it-if not for the Lord we would all become pretty rotton old people, too. Our hearts would harden into shriveled up little nuts. Of course these geezers can chose to be polite-and probably under certain circumstances it can be mustered up. But please disabuse yourself of the idea of older people somehow becoming polite at a certain age. If they weren’t decent before they got old they certainly aren’t going to get better with age. They just get worse.
They serve as wonderful examples of why Christ in our hearts and good manners really matter. Great object lessons for us all.
PS. As for the dog doo culprit-every neighborhood has one. If you can find out where they live, put the poop in a bag and return it to them, perhaps they will cease.