All I'm asking is for a little accountability
Derrick Pacheco<br | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 15 years, 12 months AGO
There are some things that just drive me up the wall.
Wearing socks with sandals, Velcro, and Dr. Suess illustrations.
But whatever happened to the social niceties I once came to expect?
The other day I was at the grocery store. I grabbed a few items and casually walked to the front of the store.
As I glanced at each register, I looked for one that would afford me the opportunity to return to my bachelor pad as soon as possible to watch the Mariners game.
I only grabbed a few items for dinner, maybe four or five, and I walked to the shortest line.
As I approached the register to get in line, I was nearly run over by a customer with a full shopping cart screaming into a cellphone.
Rather than allow me to go ahead of her with some salmon, some vegetables and a gallon of milk, I nearly became one with the magazines at the check stand.
The two of us stood looking at each other for a moment.
I glanced in the stranger’s cart, packed to the brim. I surveyed the basket in my hand. I attempted to place the items from my list onto the conveyer belt before being informed by the shopping cart-weilding maniac that I should make my way to the express lane.
The stranger began pushing my items out of the way to make room for their items.
I looked at the customer dumbfounded. I made my way around the cart for my items before the teller informed the stranger I was in line first.
I thanked the teller for her help, paid for my groceries and made my way out of the store, but not before the stranger attempted to ruin another’s day by throwing a fit when approaching the teller.
I guess I’ll chalk my unfortunate incident up to being a passive member of the Me-Generation.
Everywhere I look it’s all about “me.”
I don’t understand the incessant need for selfishness.
What’s with the constant need for a cellphone?
Don’t get me wrong, I have and use one.
I need it to stay contacted with my family. I talk to my parents almost daily.
I have it in case there is an emergency while driving through the Columbia Basin.
I don’t have it to use while in public, screaming the contents of my conversation for everyone within earshot of me.
Social niceties are disappearing at an alarming rate and as a nice, decent guy I for one am concerned.
I’m not asking for much, just help to slow the decay of social niceties.
Derrick Pacheco is the Columbia Basin Herald sports editor.
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