{"id":2876,"date":"2012-09-08T05:13:30","date_gmt":"2012-09-08T05:13:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=2876"},"modified":"2012-09-08T05:13:30","modified_gmt":"2012-09-08T05:13:30","slug":"you-push-our-buttons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/you-push-our-buttons\/","title":{"rendered":"YOU PUSH OUR BUTTONS"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

YOU ARE VERY RUDE<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Young men think old men are fools;<\/p>\n

but old men know young men are fools.
\nGeorge Chapman<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\n

I was sitting in a closed booth in the ladies room when I heard \u201cHey what are you doing?\u201d from the next booth.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t know who the voice belonged to but I didn\u2019t want to be rude so I said, \u201cI am going to the toilet.\u00a0 What are you <\/span>doing?\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The voice in came back with, \u201cSorry Joe.\u00a0 Some idiot in the next booth is horning in on the conversation.\u00a0 I\u2019ll text you instead.\u201d\u00a0 The toilet flushed, I heard the door open and footsteps recede.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I was furious.\u00a0 What right did that young lady have to criticize ME?\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t the one talking on the phone in an inappropriate place.\u00a0 How could she be so inconsiderate?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

That is the kind of reaction your generation cannot understand.\u00a0 You were not brought up in a society that used phone booths for telephone conversations and didn\u2019t carry instruments of communication into a rest room.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We were taught that it was rude to ignore someone who asked you a question.\u00a0 And speaking of questions, how many times have I said to someone your age, \u201cIsn\u2019t this a nice day?\u201d and you answer with another question.\u00a0 \u201cAre you kidding?\u00a0 Don\u2019t you see the fog?\u201d\u00a0 If I ask you to please pass the potatoes, I don\u2019t want to hear, \u201cDo you really want potatoes?\u201d\u00a0 I want you to give me the potatoes.\u00a0 I said please, didn\u2019t I?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It\u2019s all about what we were taught by our parents.\u00a0 The difference is that you have drifted a long way from what we taught you and we can\u2019t understand it.\u00a0\u00a0 You changed our rules and we don\u2019t like it.\u00a0 \u00a0We have lived through a lifetime of challenges and we think we have figured out how to solve them.\u00a0 We watch you fussing over things like the clean air and dog waste and frankly, we think your generation is making a big deal over nothing.\u00a0 We forget that our parents got annoyed with us when we didn\u2019t do things their way, too. And we forget how hurt we felt when they snapped at us.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

When I graduated from college I was absolutely certain I knew everything and my mother knew nothing at all.\u00a0 I came home from school and said,\u201dOkay Mother, get dressed.\u00a0 I am taking you to the art museum to enlarge your horizons.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

My mother looked at me as if I had just told her to set fire to the house.\u00a0 \u201cYou leave my horizons right where they are, Lynn Ruth.\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And I thought, \u201cWhy is she so annoyed?\u00a0 I wanted to give her a treat.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I am almost 80 years old and when a clerk young enough to be my grandchild calls me by my first name, I am very insulted.\u00a0 My head tells me that there is absolutely nothing wrong with addressing your elders by their first name, but my gut has told me this is rude for so many years that I don\u2019t even think before I snap.\u00a0 I would agree with you immediately that this is a silly formality.\u00a0 But I cannot help snarling when you address me as Lynn Ruth. \u201cWho do you think you are?\u201d I\u2019ll say and you will look at me as if I am brain dead.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Proper forms of address are hammered into us when we are young and we often use them without thinking. My generation always called younger people endearing names.\u00a0 Whenever I see you, I will call you sweetheart.\u00a0 It never occurred to me that this was demeaning or insulting until I read about a bank teller who was sued by its customers for calling them all darling.\u00a0 I guess it works both ways.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I was taught that you stand up when someone older or frailer needs a seat.\u00a0 This isn\u2019t something young people in the United States do but in Britain it is as automatic as saying please and thank you. (Something else Americans don\u2019t do much anymore.) \u00a0I was seated in the underground when I saw a mother standing with a three year old child in her arms.\u00a0 I stood up.\u00a0 She looked at me and was horrified.\u00a0 No way was she going to take the seat of someone old enough to be her grandmother.\u00a0 I tired to insist but she insisted louder until finally the guy across the aisle gave her his seat and I remained in mine.\u00a0 The interesting thing was that we each were just a bit annoyed with the other.\u00a0 We all like to think we are the ones acting correctly don\u2019t we?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Then there are table manners.\u00a0 When my generation sees someone eating without their hand in their lap, you can see the distaste as clearly on our faces as if we spit at you.\u00a0 Now everyone my age and yours knows this is a trivial formality and good manners at the table are a cultural thing that really make very little difference in a culture as diverse as ours.\u00a0 Still, when I see someone chewing with his mouth open, or reaching across me to grab a platter, I am miffed.\u00a0 That person cannot figure what on earth he did that was offensive. And I am not going to tell him.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

My generation was taught to be polite.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I for one am a lot happier when I am not furious and I don\u2019t like anyone criticizing me, so I understand how you feel when we get annoyed with you.\u00a0 The trick is to put yourself in our shoes.\u00a0 When your mom reprimands you for something that seems ridiculous, remember that you love your habits as much as she loves hers.\u00a0 You would be pretty upset if someone grabbed your cell phone and told you it was rude to text while waiting in line at the movies.\u00a0 The good news is that when you are ninety, can\u2019t hear a word anyone says and need a walker to get where you want to be, no one will care if you get angry at anything at all.\u00a0 \u00a0They will think you are adorable.\u00a0 \u00a0It\u2019s just one more privilege of age.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

YOU ARE VERY RUDE Young men think old men are fools; but old men know young men are fools. George Chapman I was sitting in a closed booth in the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[837],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2876","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-joe-cillo"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"