I don’t know what it is about people these days. Is it because I have grown older that I don’t understand their impatience or their lack of respect? I am sure people were more tolerant in the “Old days.” They were certainly more respectful as I recall or am I imagining it? I will bore you with the tales of my encounters with these such people.
My first experience with one such person took place at a store in Reading. I had decided to take a look at their sale offers with the hope of buying a couple of items that may have been reduced. Of course, the world and his wife had chosen the same time as me to go, therefore, the carpark was almost full. With a short wait (patiently I may add), a space became available. Armed with my trolley, I entered the store in search for a bargain. You can imagine my delight as I paid for my treasures and set off to find my car to unload all my goodies. My car was parked quite a distance from the entrance to the store but I pushed my trolley with great precision, avoiding running into people or parked cars, even when its front wheels thought about going the opposite way! By now, a short queue of cars had formed with their occupants hoping for a space and a possible bargain or two. Having finally reached my vehicle (after some searching I couldn’t quite remember where I had parked it!), I began to unload my wares. I decided to check an item as I placed it in my boot, a long white box containing white branches which had lights attached. It was so light, that I thought maybe the branches weren’t actually in it. My search was interrupted by a loud blast from a car horn along with hand gestures, which I can’t put on paper, from the owner of a vehicle waiting for my parking space! The driver continued to blast at me until I approached their driver’s window and asked what the problem was. The angry individual informed me that I was taking too long with my shopping and she needed to park, therefore I should hurry up! The queue to park had diminished leaving only this person to find a space, MINE! The impatient being continued with the tooting and charming vocabulary until I had finished packing the items in my boot. I then approached their car window once more to inform them that I was taking my trolley back. Given the distance where it needed to be returned, and, the fact that I don’t walk very fast, they’d have to wait longer!\ On my return, I saw that the individual had then managed to park the said car somewhere else.
My next rant isn’t as long as the previous one but it made me even more confused about people’s behaviour. This time a fellow car driver, a man who really thought he should own the road because he owned a rather nice looking Mercedes Benz, appeared in my rear view mirror from nowhere! He was driving that fast! I will add that it was a 30 mph area and he must have easily been doing 50mph. As I approached a petrol station, a very large van was trying to turn to his right but was too large to complete the turn, so I stopped to give him the space to manoeuvre. Mr Mercedes, who at this point would have been on my back seat if he had got any closer, started to beep his horn two or three times. I couldn’t have got past the van anyway, so why the impatience? Again, another few blasts from his horn followed. Could this have been because I let a smaller van out which by now was taking up the width of the path? As I moved forward, about 50 feet, I could see a lady with a pram trying to cross the road. Given that there isn’t a crossing at this particular junction, I of course let her cross as did the on coming vehicle. Guess what happened next? Yes, you guessed it! There were more toot toots from Mr Mercedes. He then followed me through the town (which is a 20mph over all the sleeping police men) and then out of town through the 30mph and into the 40mph until we had driven around a bend. Mr Mercedes then over took me on a solid white line on our side of the road at around 55mph. Before you ask, no, I didn’t toot him! Not because I didn’t want to stoop to his level but because I couldn’t remember which part of my steering wheel showed the picture of the horn as I seldom use it!!
Tessa Bremner 