Pink Engine Syndrome

[eddycat2000]

Originally posted by lightning_8669
that respect of others should be extended first only to yourself.

Ah, but feeling like a loser is so invigorating! (Did I spell that right?) I've got to say that while common courtesy may be dead for the rest of the world, I will continue to say thank you and please, and hold doors open for the people behind me. I also won't play my stereo in the SVX so loud my buddy five doors down can hear it when his windows are closed. And if by some strange chance I tell someone I will do something, I'll do it, no matter how hung over or tired or mad I might be. This isn't a thing that you learn overnight ya know, and people in Ideeho need a refresher course in it. I'm ashamed to admit that I don't even acknowledge the fact that people here are just plain rude to tourists. When I moved here I was shocked at the cold way I was treated, but after some time goes by you just think well, it must be normal. When some of my friends came to visit several years ago the first thing they asked me was "are all the people that live here as nasty as the ones we've met?"

Now, as you visualize me slapping my forehead...I was talking with the little old lady next door last night, guess what? One of my interviewers for the jailer job is her best buddy, they go to the rez to play bingo all the time, but I sent in an old reume not using her as a reference. They got one that had my former bosses name on it, and he's passed away now. Oh well, that's just my luck. If I was a drinking man, why I'd...OH WAIT! I do drink shee youse guys later......

Children are a great tool for teaching. My son will say something like "Dad, that person just skipped in line in front of us" and I'll say "You should have sympathy for that person. They will be living a long, difficult life because there isn't anyone who loved them enough to teach them manners".

Yes, I really say that.

[Aredubjay]

Originally posted by lightning_8669
Children are a great tool for teaching. My son will say something like "Dad, that person just skipped in line in front of us" and I'll say "You should have sympathy for that person. They will be living a long, difficult life because there isn't anyone who loved them enough to teach them manners".

Yes, I really say that.

My daughter and wife were at a conference in . . . no, I won't say the name of the city . . . but, my daughter was incensed with the rudeness. She has been brought up with manners and is "put off" by those who don't have them. "We were there for four days, daddy, and only one person held the door for me." She said. She continued, "And when he did, I was so excited, I turned around and opened the door and ran into the parking lot to thank him." The sad end to this story is this: when she turned to re-enter the restaurant, she held the door for the people coming out . . . and people continued to come out . . . and continued to come out. Not one "gentleman" stopped to offer to take over the "duties" of this petite young lady. Yes, it's a shame.

[1994SubaruSVX]

this thread would get all sappy and emotional......

[Aredubjay]

Originally posted by 1994SubaruSVX
this thread would get all sappy and emotional......

Hey, can I help it if I'm Sen-suh-TIV? He, he, he (in my best "Major Payne")

When I hold the door for someone and they just walk through without acknowledging me I yell after them "YOU'RE WELCOME" and when I walk up to a door behind someone, who knows I'm there, and they don't hold the door I yell at them "THANK YOU". They usually go "um, oh, uh, sorry".

Everybody wants but nobody wants to pay. I was at the grocery store (and in a *big* hurry) and this elderly gentleman was in one of those motorized carts. He was trying to buy lunch meat from the deli. No one would give him a hand trying to grab the stuff from the lady. I stood there for 10 minutes working as a translator and a human conveyor. The guy finally gets all his stuff, thanks me, and them some lady that just walked up tries to get the lady to serve her next. All I can say is if I was a violent person there'd be fewer mouths to feed.

[svxistentialist]

We have it here too, but it is not so bad. I put it down to insularity, rather than what my Mother would call "bad rearing"

I see kids in the pubs and on the street, and instead of talking to each other, individually they are talking to some other fool on a mobile phone in some other street!!

As for door opening, I lead by example. with the preformed notion that I will ignore bad manners and non acknowledgement. I will also give up my seat on the train to older people or ladies of any age, but younger girls almost resent preferential treatment, it clashes with their notion of independent femininity.
Doesn't bother me, I have my own notions, and other principles too like Groucho.
Courtesy is a very round concept, and will always come back to you.

Joe

[SVXphile]

...like the bunny, it just keeps going and going and ....I hadn't clicked on this thread since page one and wow! Lots of catching up to do...

" You should have put your two fists out, told her to "Cuff me, just cuff me, I'm guilty."

As some of you know, my wife is a corrections officer. My words were just about the same, and she DID cuff me.....(my right ear still rings a bit). .........not.

Eddy...my dear officer/wife went flying thru mentalpause with a bit of hormone replacement therapy. Very little change really, from her usual easy-going attitude. The hot flashes fortunately did not last too long...but I certainly can identify with the covers off/covers on syndrome! At least the cats provided some thermal equilibrium...

Is there anything so uncommon as common courtesy? Well, in school I do still see lots of kids that will hold a door for a teacher coming up the stairs behind them, or bend to pick up something you've dropped....but their manners towards each OTHER or lack thereof, is amazing! You can sure tell in a flash about their upbringing, when you tell them what they should have done in some situation, and they look at you like...like you arrived from Mars. Don

<Courtesy is a very round concept, and will always come back to you>
...and those big hits just keep on coming!

[Aredubjay]

Originally posted by SVXphile
or bend to pick up something you've dropped....

Which, is most likely, their pants.

[SVXphile]

< Which, is most likely, their pants>

We teachers try to stay attached to ours....but the male students on the other hand wear pants three sizes too big with no support structure.

But enough about dirty cracks.... Don

[Aredubjay]

Originally posted by SVXphile
< Which, is most likely, their pants>

We teachers try to stay attached to ours....but the male students on the other hand wear pants three sizes too big with no support structure.

But enough about dirty cracks.... Don

My son likes to wear sagging jeans/pants. We're forever having to tell him to hike them up. I have threatened to get the industrial stapler.

And to think this all started when Doug Mohr drained some compressor dye into my engine compartment

Imagine where a thread that *started* with manners and "mentalpause" would eventually lead!

I feel for today's teachers. Many parents think that their children are supposed to learn *everything* in school. Manners are supposed to be taught in the home long before a child enters into school. I don't believe in physical violence but the fact that it would be allowed (as when I was in school) went a long way, and could go a long way, in making kids behave. Kids now days know they hold the "upper hand" in that the consequences will likely be dished out by already lenient parents. A friend's wife teaches at the High School level and was appalled by parents' lack of concern or action regarding their child's misdeeds. It's the old computer motto "Garbage in, garbage out". Exceptional schools have motivated students and that motivation begins in the home and, at a quality school, is reinforced by the faculty.

I do sincerely feel sorry for people who lack proper manners. They were short changed by their parents and family *not* by the "system". If you truly love your children teach them the value of polite social interaction. Their lives will be much easier albeit sometimes discouraging.

[svxistentialist]

Originally posted by lightning_8669
I do sincerely feel sorry for people who lack proper manners. They were short changed by their parents and family *not* by the "system". If you truly love your children teach them the value of polite social interaction. Their lives will be much easier albeit sometimes discouraging.

You are spot on the money JP.
Most of my college friends are teachers, and their lives are hell. Sometimes I have no sympathy, they have ridiculously long holidays paid for by my hard-earned tax. Then again, you see the reality, and realise you would not do the job yourself for twice the salary.

Nice to see so many here with the same approach, it means we have the solution if we care to apply it. Will only take about a generation to rectify.

Our generation made the mistake of insisting that children of all ages be afforded inalienable human rights, and these, if contravened by teachers or other figures in loco parentis are addressible by law.
We did not insist that with these inalienable rights, they also have unavoidable responsibilities to those around them, their peers, their mentors, and the older generation and themselves.

We have spawned a generation with no respect, and who are conditioned to think the world, society in general, and their families owe them a living. For all this, they owe nobody nothing. Forgive the double negative.

Poetic justice, we children of the sixties, advocates of freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom from the draught, free love, end up saddled with a bunch of freeloaders.

Back to the drawing board......


Joe

There is a fine line between granting children "human rights" and raising them to be considerate adults. My wife and I decided to wait until we were older (30?) to get married and even longer to become parents. We have only one son who is now 6. I'm glad we waited for many reasons. The main freedom we are trying to supply our child with is the freedom to discuss nearly any subject or topic he desires (*not* at *any* time or *any* place of his choosing, however). It is very difficult to instill in him values of money and, more importantly, emotions. It is a challenge that, unfortunately, many parents don't have time or energy to undertake. However, I belive that borders on inexcuseable.

My son at least understands the concepts but, as a typical 6 year old, would rather play than be responsible. I keep telling myself and my wife that the more we push the more he will resist so we need to seek that "fine line" to balance our efforts on. I think he's getting it though. Last night I was at my parents house and he complimented my Mom on her cooking, you could see how happy it made him to make her happy. We need to find more opportunities for him to have those experiences.

Teaching consequences is another great challenge of parents and school teachers. Historically these consquences were dealt in the form of mild physical violence (subjective). I was spanked as a child (something I don't agree with) and that treatment was a powerful (both positive and negative) motivator in behavior modification. We have, as a society, removed this "consequence" from the "tool box" but have not replaced it. In this country we removed it with laws. A child now misbehaves and what happens? Not too much unfortunately. At least in the childs eyes. It is the simlplest logic string "If then". It is the "then" that is lacking and needs to be found by teachers and parents.

But I still don't know what this has to do with Doug dying my SVX's engine pink? Maybe he needs a good whacking?

[eddycat2000]

Originally posted by lightning_8669
Maybe he needs a good whacking?

I agree with everything you said. I'm curious, as one of the kids that did get a few whoopin's early in life...did anyone else make the mistake of telling his dad he hit like a girl? (Found out just how hard he could hit that day!)