Can’t Anybody Wait Their Turn?

Whatever happened to waiting your turn?

Maybe I notice it more today as I slide into life as a curmudgeon, although.  It doesn’t make it any less irritating.  Saturday morning I needed a new cell phone.  For three weeks the battery on my 26-month-old Samsung was gradually failing.  A big spot had cropped up on the screen and it was taking longer-and-longer to recharge the device.

Then I accidentally dropped it into my kitchen sink.  Which was empty, save for a bowl filled with water.  Which is where the telephone landed.  Amazingly, it still worked but its performance didn’t improve by getting wet.

At the store there was a woman ahead of me.  I know her son.  We made small talk until she completed her purchase and then it was my turn.  In a matter of 5 minutes 4 people came along and interrupted the clerk.  Finally, I told one fellow he could wait, just as I had waited.  He stood there and sulked and wouldn’t look my way.  Within a few minutes he slinked off.

This isn’t my only recent experience.  It happens at service counters at the grocery store nearly every time I stop to buy stamps or pay a utility bill.  What’s wrong with you people?  Can our culture really be filled with so many self-serving, self-absorbed anal orifices?  Justice would be making them go to the back of a long line where they could wait.  And wait.  And wait…