P’s and q’s…

Saying “thank you”, “please”, “may I” and all the other pleasantries was hammered into me as a child, having been raised for a large part of my life in the deep south. Respecting others was something that you didn’t consider as an option because there was swift consequences for speaking back or not being polite.

It’s so ingrained in me that all people are sir or ma’am, no matter the age and I expect to hear it back. Though, it did take me quite a few years to become accustomed to myself as a ma’am, because that was reserved for grown-ups, some place that I was no where close to being. But as responsibilities have been assumed and I’ve progressed through the ranks of the corporate world, there is no denying, I’m certifiably a ‘ma’am’.

(Which if anyone is confused is completely different from a Madame, in the non-French Mrs. meaning. If I was, my blog would be a whole lot more interesting.)

And most of all, we were taught to respect our elders.

So when I was walking along in a big box store shopping for my needed items, and not so needed items, I was stopped by an older gentleman, who had to be in his sixties – graying hair and pants pulled up to his nipples. We were walking in opposite directions down the aisle and I wasn’t hogging the space so that his cart couldn’t pass mine, I was taken back by his very stern voice stating, “YOUNG LADY!” I immediately snapped to with a quick, “Yes sir?”, thinking “Oh God, what have I done.” Wondering did I cut him off, take the last of a product he wanted or hit him on accident.

But I didn’t have time to consider all the variables for I was in store for a rant.

“Young lady, I am offended by your shirt. I can’t believe you would dare disrespect a branch of our armed services. I proudly served our country with pride and went to Korea so that you could be free. The least you could do is not show your indignity to our nation. This is not what our Founding Father’s meant when they gave you the freedom of speech!”

I was completely befuddled because I’ve never worn anything offensive in my life but maybe naughty clothes gnomes had switched out a perfectly respectable shirt for one that Russel Brand would wear. So, I quickly looked down to see what could possibly be on my shirt that would cause this man to get riled up.

An Old Navy T-shirt.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 10th, 2009 at 10:12 pm and is filed under Random Thoughts, Rant. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.