Just need to rant......

[natertot]

The other day, I was told that I have expectations that are too high for anyone to meet. This occurred after I expierenced someone who didn't have any manners. It kinda got me thinkin.....What happened to basic manners and etiquette? Nothing over the top, just manners. You know, saying "please" when you ask for something. Sayin "thanks" when you get it. When you call someone, simply identifying yourself [I]before[I] stating your business. Do we really live in an era now where a little politeness has no place?

[gryffynklm]

I totally agree. Its almost as if some think it takes too much time to be courteous.

[BENESSE]

You've hit on one of my major pet peeves.
Manners are a rarety these days no matter where you go; I suppose if grown ups don't have manners, they can't teach them to their kids. Used to be, small towns were better than big cities. Not the case any more. I try not to get bent out of shape over it since there's nothing I can do except practice my own.

[Rick]

I'm squarely in your corner on this one. Good manners are common courtesy and really says something about your upbringing. Rudeness is most often an instrument to gain power (at any level) and something I find disreputable.

A town in Massachusetts just passed a law making it a $20 fine to swear in public. Bravo!!

http://www.lancastereaglegazette.com...xt|Frontpage|s

[letslearntogether47]

Yeah,sometimes they pass laws that make sense here.
They got sick of the F bomb being dropped all the time.

[2dumb2kwit]

Oh...I need to rant, too! Same reason, sort of.

The other day I went to the store, to pick up something to cook on the grill, and some junk food. (I wanted some cheering up, because my doc had just told me not to use my right arm for another 6 weeks.) Keep in mind, this means I'm going to the store one armed, with the other in a big ol' padded sling. When I pulled in the parking lot, there were several empty spaces, spread out along the first row that I had turned down. One here, two there, another one down there, etc. Well...turns out that noone was parked in them because people had left shopping carts in them!

After I had parked 487 miles from the door, I thought about taking one of the space blocking carts in with me, but I didn't. My reason, was that I had tried that the other day, and it's a real pain to push a shopping cart with one arm, but add to that a rough parking lot, that doesn't wwant the shopping cart to go straight anyway....well, let's just say I didn't want that frustration.

The real kicker, though, is that when I got into the store.....there were no shopping carts in there!!! I was more than a little ticked, and had no intention of trying to carry stuff to the check-out. (Did I mention that I'm still working with one arm. LOL)

Yep, I just went home empty handed, and thought about that ice-cream sammich that I didn't have.

[2dumb2kwit]

...and for the record....If I had seen one of those people leaving a cart in a parking space...I would have gladly paid a $20 fine, to tell them just what I thought of it! LOL

[karatediver]

I got off the phone with the my deceased uncles' old neighbor. My uncle's wife still owns the home but they rent it out to another family now. He called to tell me that he caught the kids who live there tearing off the shingles of my aunt's roof and throwing them into the pool. I had him repeat it a couple times because I just could not believe what I was hearing. He said he thought it had been going on a while and that this was the first time he caught the perpetrators in the act and it wasn't some punks from the neighborhood but the kids actually living in the house. Now on the one hand I was just totally blown away by the wanton destruction and disregard for other people's property but I was also grateful for the neighbor for telling the kids to stop and then calling to let us know what was going on. Today a lot of folks would just ignore that sort of thing because it isn't hurting their own house. So even with the bad there is still some good out there and folks still doing the right thing.

[gryffynklm]

2D im with you there. The shopping cart thing....... How about the other day when a fully abled person pushed her cart and left in front of her car to leave it. She was parked next to the empty cart corral and had to push it between the corral and her car the opening being next to her trunk. it would have been less effort (like it would really be an effort) to push it in the corral.

Lazy or dumb as a box of rocks without a bottom.

[cowgirlup]

Well now why would anyone bother to say plase and thank you for all the stuff they are entitled to already? And you certainly don't want to stiffle anyones freedom of speech cause we owe people that too....don't we? Even if they're being nasty? Shopping carts? See now you're blaming the wrong people. That's the stores fault. The customer is always right so if the customer doesn't want to put the cart in the proper place then that must be OK too. So what if the wind blows it into someone else's car or they clog up parking spots. Not their problem.

Yeah, must be your unreasonable expectations.

[Old Professor]

I agree totally!!! On another web site I visit, one of the best moderators quit because of the incivility and personal attacks. I have considered leaving yet another site for the same reasons. And it isn't just the young people either. I see this as a general sign of the decline of our society and a very good reason for this sites existance. I used to think that this behavior was tied to the annominity of the internet but now I see it growing in society in general. I live in a generally low population rural area where over all civility still is strong but there is a certain segment of the population that needs slapped up along side the head with a baseball bat just to teach them manners.

[Winnie]

My Dad used to say good manners and courtesy cost nothing. I can't tell you how much a lack of either gets up my nose.

[Rick]

2D - If it's any consolation my cart always goes in the corral or back in the store. I went to Staples a few weeks back to pick up some supplies. Their parking lot is on a bit of an incline. Before I got out of the truck I watched a lady push her empty shopping cart about half way to a corral and just leave it. It was in the middle of two parking spaces but the lot was nearly empty. (Now comes the cool part) She hurried back to her car followed by the cart. Before she opened the drivers door I tooted the horn just in time for her to look up and see the cart smack the right rear quarter panel of her car. It warmed the cockles of my heart.

[crashdive123]

No arguments from me regarding manners.

@2D2K.......Pull the cart - much easier.

[letslearntogether47]

2D - If it's any consolation my cart always goes in the corral or back in the store. I went to Staples a few weeks back to pick up some supplies. Their parking lot is on a bit of an incline. Before I got out of the truck I watched a lady push her empty shopping cart about half way to a corral and just leave it. It was in the middle of two parking spaces but the lot was nearly empty. (Now comes the cool part) She hurried back to her car followed by the cart. Before she opened the drivers door I tooted the horn just in time for her to look up and see the cart smack the right rear quarter panel of her car. It warmed the cockles of my heart.

Generally it's not the lazy person that pays the price for an unreturned cart.
I seen many on windy days come to a crashing stop into somebodies car or truck.
They can pick up some serious speed.

Well,the ones that don't have bent wheels anyways.lol

[hunter63]

I find it amusing to step back and allow others to go ahead of me, hold doors for people, say please, thank you,.... address people as Sir, Ma'am,..... and if they look at me oddly, and some do... I just tell them I have all day, show them my empty palm, explaining that my palm pilot is blank, today.......Then wish them a nice day.......

I have a feeling I am really messing with their heads.......

I hear ya about the shopping carts....and even worse is people parking in the handicap, or parking too close so as to not be able to use that spot.......I may even face charges some day... when I go off on some a$$ whole.....But the really corks me off!

I park in the boonies on purpose so as to keep dings at a mimium, and generally pick up a cart or two.. on my way into the store....plenty to pick from, I agree.

That said....just don't get me started on cell phones.......

[pete lynch]

When my arm was out of commission a few years ago, I would pull the shopping cart behind me. A lot easier than pushing it one-handed (which I tried first).
Lack of manners are high on my peave-list along with the shopping carts left in parking spaces. I also cant stand getting a cart that has flat spots on the wheels due to the cart wranglers sliding a flock of carts sideways to line them up so they go straight in the door.

[Daniel Nighteyes]

2D im with you there. The shopping cart thing....... How about the other day when a fully abled person pushed her cart and left in front of her car to leave it. She was parked next to the empty cart corral and had to push it between the corral and her car the opening being next to her trunk. it would have been less effort (like it would really be an effort) to push it in the corral.

Thank you, gryffynklm!

Though it is small comfort, at least now I know that this blight isn't limited to the Left Coast. Every time I go to the supermarkets (plural) I see ample evidence of shoppers who are just too f**king lazy to walk 15-20 feet to place their carts in the corral. Like your example, I often see carts abandoned in the parking spaces ADJACENT to the cart corrals.

Just last week, as I pulled into a parking lot, I witnessed a 20-something female abandon her cart a whopping 12 feet from the corral before climbing into her (no-doubt-leased) Lexus. As I walked past, and in her full and direct view, I guided the cart she had abandoned right into the corral. She burned rubber getting out of the lot. I'm pretty sure she intended this as a non-verbal rebuttal to what I had just done.

I'm also pretty sure that all of you know just how much this rubberized temper-tantrum affected me.

These days the problem with common sense, and with common courtesy, is that they aren't common anymore. And the world is much worse for it.

-- Nighteyes

[2dumb2kwit]

2D - If it's any consolation my cart always goes in the corral or back in the store. I went to Staples a few weeks back to pick up some supplies. Their parking lot is on a bit of an incline. Before I got out of the truck I watched a lady push her empty shopping cart about half way to a corral and just leave it. It was in the middle of two parking spaces but the lot was nearly empty. (Now comes the cool part) She hurried back to her car followed by the cart. Before she opened the drivers door I tooted the horn just in time for her to look up and see the cart smack the right rear quarter panel of her car. It warmed the cockles of my heart.

I love a happy ending. LOL

[2dumb2kwit]

Thanks guys, for the "pull the cart" tip.
I tried that, but I'm not very graceful, and run over my own heels. I tried walking beside the cart, but then I feel like one of those "in the way, isle blocking people". LOL

I mostly go with the "take the other half and let her push the cart". Sometimes I go alone and then talk to the pretty ladies that see me struggling and ask if I'm OK, or if I need help. (They like it when you act like you refuse to let it get the best of you.)LOL