So if you have ever listened to Weird Al Yankovic, then you know where the title of this blog comes from. When I think of M, his song...
So I've been absent for a good minute from the alphabet blog... I actually could consider my last blog Manless part of the Alphabet blog and call that M but tonight I think I have a good topic.
Let's talk about manners.
When I was a child, I spoke to my mother in a manner befitting the fact that I was a child and she was the adult. In fact I spoke to all adults in the manner. Even when I was so mad I could scream and shout and throw worlds biggest temper tantrum, I still spoke to them with the respect their age granted them. That was how I was raised.
I don't find that this is the case now. Children today speak to adults in such a manner that I wonder how they are still standing where they are. Some of these kids... Man my mother would have slapped them in the next week and would be waiting there to slap them back again. It'd be like watching a game of Pong, this week, last week, this week, last week...
I was in the store the other day and a mom was calling her little boy. She kept screaming for him over and over. First of all my kids know that if I have to call you more than twice, your butt is roadkill anyway. You don't ignore mom. The fact that this woman was in Wal-Mart screaming for her son, who turned out to be about ten and she called him a total of ten times before he even acknowledged her was a little too much for me. When he finally did acknowledge his mother, his response was, "Will you leave me the hell alone? I'm lookin' at something!"
Does that little boy know how lucky he is that he wasn't my child???? Forgetting the fact that she called him ten times, he cussed at her AND told her to leave him alone. If she had decided to slap the little shit across the store I would have gladly kicked him back to her so she could do it again and again. We could have played a nice little game of soccer. OMG! And the mom, who sadly fit every stereotype of white mothers. Come on, I'm not offending anyone here. Throughout time there has been a distinct difference in the way white women mother and the way black women mother. A black mother would have knocked every tooth in the boys head out. Some white mothers would have yelled and screamed, some white mothers would have walked away, and yet still some white mothers would do with this woman did and say, "Okay but hurry up." It was at this point that I wanted to smack the mother.
I'm not a non violent person sometimes. I mean I don't try to be. I would have mini strokes fifty times a day if I did try to be or think non violent thoughts all the time. All I can say to my defense is at least I only think my violent thoughts. I haven't actually voiced them in a few weeks since I told a woman (in wal-mart, no less) that if she didn't stop waving her hand like she was dismissing me that I would snatch her bald. *Picture old television shows where the snooty rich person was trying to tell the help they were dismissed they would do that palm facing down go away wave with their fingertips. This woman was doing that to me and another black man. I told her if she waved her bright yellow nails at me one more again (Yes I said that) I would snatch the hair off her head.*
Back to the woman at hand. This woman stood there for a good five minutes before she realized that the three other women in the aisle besides me were looking at her like she was stupid as hell. Then she politely announced to the boy that she was leaving and if he wasn't in the car when she left he'd be sorry and she walked away. The boy, perhaps meaning to say it after she walked away or maybe he was actually sucky at snappy comebacks said, "Whatever. Bye!"
It was at this point I left. I just left.
And Children aren't the only ones being rude. Since I have been down here I have faced the worst kind of Racism there is... Elderly racism.
Thanks to the Paula Dean fiasco, we are ALL aware that today's elderly generation grew up calling black people n!%%ers and coons. It was socially acceptable back when they were young. They did not all get the memo that times have changed and that they can have the tar beat out of them for saying that now. And while I have been racially slurred by elderly people in the past nothing gets me more than when an elderly person says "Oh you can let me go ahead of you, you're young, and I've earned my way to the front of the line."
I kid you not, this has actually been said to me on more than one occasion by someone who is NOT family. I mean seriously??! WTF? Ask me if you can go ahead of me, don't tell me that deserve to go ahead of me!
Those of you that know me on Facebook know that I had an encounter with a woman (In walmart) where she had a cartful of things and I had three things and when the cashier finished ringing her purchases the woman turned to me and told me that not letting me go ahead of her in line should teach me a lesson about expecting people to let me skip line because I only had a few things. Keep in mind that I never in any way intimated that I wanted to go ahead of her. Nothing came out of my mouth, nothing was communicated from my eyes, or my stance that I know of. Maybe I'm very talkative in body motions.
Being my mother's child, I have a very low tolerance for rude people no matter the age. My grandmother raised her that way and she raised me that way. My Great Grandmother probably didn't have to raise my grandmother to respect her elders because way back then, nobody blinked an eye when someone smacked their kid across the room. Didn't matter what they did. If they got a smack, they deserved it.... usually.
Ugh. What are your thoughts on manners? I'm curious..
