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Common Courtesy Is Dead So I'm sitting at the local Panera eating my tasty sourdough breadbowl of broccoli cheddar soup (my favorite) while hubby went to fill his cup with ice tea. Its a beautiful day, we just hit the Costco for bulk goodies, and now we were going to have a very nice lunch together and relax.

I'm vaguely aware of someone wandering around in front of me, then a female voice says loudly: "Do they bus the tables here?" I look up from my lunch and there is a woman standing in front of my table holding some trash items. She repeats: "Do they bus the tables here?" I say "um, over there (I point to the trash container), there's a trash container to throw your stuff in." To which the woman responds with "I'm from out of town." and she walks over to the trash and leaves.

Now, this has me very miffed for a myriad of reasons. I'm old enough to remember a time when people were courteous and had manners. Back in the "good old days" the conversation would have been something like this:

Woman stands up and can't see where to toss her trash. She approaches my table and says "Excuse me, but I'm from out of town and not familiar with how Panera works, is there someplace I should throw my trash, or do they bus the tables?" I look up and said "Over there (pointing) that's where you can throw your stuff". The woman looks at where I was pointing, then says "Oh, thank you" then leaves to throw her items away.

Is that so hard? Seriously, is that really so hard?

The problem with this is that nobody seems to remember those "good old days" and has forgotten how to behave in public, how to interact with other human beings, and just perpetuates rudeness throughout the land. We're doomed.
Posted by Shmoo at 3:01 PM Labels: courtesy, good old days, manners, Panera, soup The Brat Pack said...

I could NOT agree more. What is truly sad about it is that you can see it in the kids now too which is just scary. Pretty soon us "old" folks will be gone and that's all there will be left. Sad, sad, sad.

On the other hand, people like that make me want to just smack them so I guess I'm not as nice as I like to believe. ;)
 
Does being 35 qualify in the "old" range? I remember when common courtesy was not only expected, but delivered!

 Shadie Sadie said...

Perhaps she was rude to you, but you have to admit that the concept of busing your own table, sorting out silverware and trash and putting the dishes and uneated food in the right containers is...um...unappetizing at best. It's a disgusting concept and keeps me from eating there anymore.
 
Common courtesy really is dead. Today I was walking down the sidewalk to class when I noticed three people standing side by side walking on the same sidewalk in the opposite direction. Being that there were three of them and that they were walking adjacent to each other, they were occupying the entire width of the sidewalk. As we approached each other, I moved to my right and waited for them to move to theirs so we could pass each other. Not one of them made even the slightest effort to clear any space so that I or other commuters walking behind me could walk past. Instead, they pretended to be completely unaware of anyone else's presence on the sidewalk and forced me and everyone else to step off the sidewalk and wait for them to pass, without muttering so much as an "excuse us."
