The Crotchety Old Woman Was Too Set In Her Ways
“One day I was at a gas station waiting in a line of about five people. The kid ringing everyone up had gauged ears and he was doing an awesome job, being super polite, etc. Then this old lady behind me said to another, ‘This kid is such an idiot and so disgusting. I wish I didn’t have to put up with people like that.’
So, my ears are also gauged, but I have no plugs in. I also have a very large septum (nose) piercing, but I don’t keep it in either. However, for some reason, my septum ring was in my pocket that day.
This old lady was going on and on, making sure she was loud enough that the kid could hear her embarrassing him. After he rang me up, I turned around and said, ‘I’m so sorry to eavesdrop, but I couldn’t agree more. I hear some people put stuff like that through their eyebrows, lips, and even their noses.’
She smiled with satisfaction…temporarily. I took out my nose ring which looks very sharp and said, ‘I wonder if it hurts?’ I started pushing it through the hole very comfortably, as it is healed, but I was making screaming noises as if I was piercing it right then and there. There was this huge military-type dude behind her and his eyes got SO big.
After pushing it through and letting out a sigh, I said to her, ‘It’s not so bad after all. Honestly, I’m glad to see this young man has a job at all in today’s economy, and the only thing I find offensive is your blatant disregard for other people’s feelings and the perfume you are wearing that smells like a flower threw up. Oh well…have a great day!’
The look on her face was absolutely priceless, the kid was smiling for the first time since I had entered the store, and the jacked dude behind her grinned and gave me a thumbs up as I left. In retrospect, I was probably just as much as a prick as she was, but I felt better knowing that, if only for a minute, she might understand what she makes other people feel like by making such stupid comments out loud.”
She Made A Stunning Accusation Against A Blind Man
“About a year ago at my university, there was this blind man who was the NICEST guy ever. He took a full schedule of classes and was always somewhere on campus. He used a white cane to help guide himself, but would still understandably get lost on the large campus plenty of times. He didn’t really have much of a family left, as he was much older, but he loved learning and said that’s how he wanted to spend the rest of his life. Any time I saw him, I’d always say what’s up and walk with him to where he wanted to go because he told some of the coolest stories.
One day, I was walking in the hall of one of the campus buildings and I saw him accidentally brush a girl with his cane, and he immediately apologized. This girl was blonde with a fake-tan, wearing Uggs and sweatpants. We have lots of girls like her on campus and they suck. Instead of being compassionate to the fact that HE IS FREAKING BLIND, she started screaming at him and telling him to ‘quit being a pervert.’ He kept apologizing and saying he didn’t mean to bump her with his cane, but she wasn’t having it and started making a scene.
I’ve never moved so fast in my entire life; I sprinted across the hall and said, ‘Hey, what the heck is wrong with you?’ She was shocked, since I guess she didn’t think there was anyone else in the hall watching, and she started saying how he hit her with his cane. All I said, in the most ‘I’m not angry at you, I’m just disappointed’ tone I could muster, was, ‘That man has more dignity and self-worth than you will ever have. Apologize to him, and leave.’
She got this ‘I just messed up’ look on her face, apologized without even looking at him (not that he would know the difference, I guess), and walked away with her head hanging down. My blind homie graduated last semester, too, so it all worked out for him!”
It Was Clear That The Girl Had Been Spoiled Rotten
“When I was in Waikiki with my family, we went to Denny’s one morning for some breakfast. About halfway through our meal, a teenage girl loudly STOMPED in, slammed a chair down, and started yelling at her family for leaving her up in the hotel room. Her father had had some sort of throat surgery so he couldn’t talk to her and was writing her notes to try to calm her down.
She continued talking extremely loudly and was rude to the waitress. She was telling her dad, ‘No, shut up,’ and ‘Eff you.’ All of this was over the fact that she didn’t want to sleep in a pull-out bed because her two (well-behaved) brothers got their own room. After about 10 minutes of fuming, I finally snapped when she told her mom to shut up yet again.
I just yelled out, ‘NO, YOU SHUT UP! You’re in HAWAII and you’re complaining that you have to sleep on a pull-out bed? Quit being so horrible to your parents who more than likely paid the entire cost for you being here, you spoiled brat. You’re ruining everyone’s breakfast!’
She tried to talk back to me but my mom kept cutting her off, telling her to just be quiet. She sat there for a little while longer and murmured that she was going to ‘slap that witch in the face.’ After I (6-foot tall female) made it apparent I could still hear her, she shut up and left after five minutes.
Her brothers came over and apologized to/thanked us. The waitress, the table behind us, the cashier, and one other table all individually thanked us for shutting her up. It was seriously like one of those set-up TV shows to try and test people, it was that outrageous.”
He Confused Canadian Politeness With Xenophobia
“One time I was on a bus going home when a Middle Eastern couple got on with a stroller. Now, I’m from Vancouver, Canada, where it’s common courtesy that when someone comes on with a stroller, you get up off your seat and move away or to the back of the bus so the parent can sit with their child.
This time the man who moved clearly wasn’t happy about the situation. He grumbled and groaned to himself as he gave up his seat. The Middle Eastern woman smiled (she clearly didn’t know very good English) and tried to offer the man his seat back, insisting that she was ok with standing. The man looked at the woman and snarled, ‘Yeah, thanks,’ and continued standing, shaking his head.
I was biting my tongue at the time, shaking my own head in disbelief over how childish the grown man was acting. Then the husband smiled at the man and also offered his seat. The angry man glared, responding with, ‘Yeah, THANK-YOU, I got that. If I wanted to sit back down, I would have done it when SHE asked me.’ Then he started flipping out. ‘See how I say thank you? You know why? Because I am CANADIAN, and we do that here. Are you Canadian? Are you? I highly doubt it! You don’t even speak English, do you?! Welcome to my country! You…’
By that time, I couldn’t keep quiet. Angry and appalled, I snapped, ‘EXCUSE ME!’ The enraged man quickly shut his mouth, surprised at my outburst. ‘Shut your STUPID mouth,’ I said. ‘She was being polite!’
‘They aren’t Canadian!’ he shouted back at me.
I interrupted, ‘Oh, I’m sorry, are YOU Canadian?’
‘Yes!’ he replied.
‘Yeah? Good, then start acting like it! You either decline the offer or keep your mouth shut and have some bloody respect!’ I said heatedly. The bus went totally silent, and everyone was staring. The angry man went red in the face, stumbling over his own words as he tried to come up with some other argument. It was then that the bus driver asked the man to get off the bus, and he did. It probably wasn’t the best way I could have handled things, but it was the end of a very long day and I had no patience for ignorance of that level.”
She Was Insulting The Child In Front Of The Whole Store
“I had to scold a lady at work a few days ago. She came in with this child who was about 8 or 9, and seemed like he had ADHD. He was holding a toy compass and was asking what means North, but the lady, apparently his aunt, refused to answer and ignored him, so he sat down on the seats in front of the cashier’s desk. She scolded him and continued to call him a brat, snotface, irritating, and an idiot.
My coworker then started talking to him, and she later said he was a nice little boy. Then his aunty started to insult him by saying he was such a brat, and how she didn’t want to bring him along. My coworker and I just kind of stared in amazement at how rude this woman was being, and how she could be so heartless to insult him in public and embarrass him.
Fast forward through about 20 minutes of her looking around and finally bringing her stuff to the desk for me to ring in for her. The little boy was beside her and I was making casual conversation with her about the prices and stuff. Then the boy asked her what would happen if he pushed the button on the scanner. I was about to tell him that it wouldn’t do anything other than ring it in, but she cut me off and went, ‘If you touch that, I’ll SPANK your butt.’ I was so shocked and trying my best to hold back from saying anything.
Then, as I was putting her purchases in a bag, the little boy said something about how whoever they bought the stuff for would really like it, and she hugged him and went, ‘Oh, your mother might not want you, but I sure do.’ I was absolutely shocked.
I just stared at her and before my coworker could stop me, I said, ‘You’re a terrible person. You’re insulting a child in a public place and embarrassing him while he does nothing. Maybe it’s just a bad day, but you should never treat a child how you’re treating this boy. He has been nothing but quiet and sweet. Perhaps you shouldn’t be the one to care for him because this is just you in public and I can only imagine how you act behind closed doors. I’m sorry, but I refuse to ring in anybody who could be so heartless towards a defenseless child.’ I got in trouble, but it was worth it to see her in such a state of shock.”
The Girl Was Far Too Old To Freakout Out On A Flight
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“I used to fly a lot for work and often had to deal with the typical flying annoyances (crying babies, people who were too wide for their seat, obnoxiously wasted guys hitting on the flight attendants) but the one that sent me over the edge was when a 9/10-year-old girl in the seat behind me began to kick the back of my chair repeatedly, yelling at the top of her lungs for no reason.
I turned around, glared at the girl and at her mother sitting next to her, and simply asked her to stop. The girl almost immediately resumed the kicking and yelling, prompting the flight attendant to come over and speak to her mother. Less than a minute after the flight attendant had returned to the front of the plane, the kid started kicking again. I undid my seatbelt, turned around, and, completely ignoring the kid, I ripped into the mother:
‘Is this your kid? Yes? Then act like a parent and control your daughter. She’s acting like a spoiled little brat. I’ve already spoken to you about this and so did the flight attendant. Now I don’t care how you deal with your kids when you’re at home, but I’m sure as heck not going to put up with your daughter kicking my seat and yelling in my ear for the next three hours. If you can’t keep her quiet and behaved for a 3-hour flight, you shouldn’t be on a plane.’
The daughter was smirking the whole time her mom was being reamed out, so I said, ‘You think this is funny?!’ and gave her a death glare until the smirk disappeared. ‘Answer me! DO. YOU. THINK. THIS. IS. FUNNY?’ The girl finally gave a very quiet, ‘No…’ to which I replied, ‘I don’t think it’s funny either. You’re going to sit in your chair quietly, and you’re going to watch TV or read a book or something, and above all else, you are not going to kick my chair or yell for the rest of this flight, agreed?’
She just nodded back at me. As I turned around in my seat and put my seatbelt back on, the whole plane gave me a round of applause and the flight attendant gave me free drinks for the rest of the flight. From then on out, the girl never made a sound louder than a whisper.”
The Woman Was Clearly Projecting Her Bad-Parenting Anxieties
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“One time I was with my wife (she was my girlfriend at the time) and we were enjoying a great walk around the Omaha Zoo. We had happened into the primate area and were checking out the monkeys, apes, and such.
This one small enclosure had a climbing rope inside with a baby primate crawling around on the rope, and a small girl edged a bit closer to the glass to get a better look. Just as she did, this woman stepped up right in this other lady’s face and started chewing her out. She very loudly said, ‘Ma’am, your daughter is extremely rude. She just pushed my son out of the way, stood right in front of him, and blocked his sight. You need to learn how to control your children.’
The lady being chewed out was speechless. The thing is, that’s not what happened at all. Before the woman could even respond, I turned to face the accuser and just as loudly said, ‘No, you are the one being rude. I was standing right there and the only thing that her daughter did was take a step closer to the glass. The area is crowded, and everyone is just trying to see better.’
The woman started at me in shock as I continued, ‘She never pushed your son out of the way and his sight was not blocked. You’re the one setting a terrible example for their child. You need to learn how to behave in public, because this little display of unprovoked anger isn’t it.’ Then my girlfriend and I just turned and walked off. Every now and then, one of us will turn to the other and say, ‘I can’t believe how rude that lady was at the Omaha Zoo!'”
He Almost Let It Go, But She’d Just Been So Nasty
“I was at a café with my wife and her mother some years ago. It was a beautiful summer day, sunny outside, and the café had a nice garden. We were happy, and everyone seemed to be having a nice time. Before us in line were a few members of a larger party who came by bus. When the time came for a woman of about 55 years of age to order, stuff got a little nasty.
The girl who stood behind the counter couldn’t have been much older than 16 years old, and it was very clear she and her sister were working there as a summer gig. They tried their best to take orders and answer questions, but this customer had to start something. She asked about some topping on a pie, and the girl seemed confused and didn’t quite know the answer right away. The lady immediately tore into her, like she smelled fear or something. ‘If you work here, I’d think you’d know what you’re doing! You DO work here, don’t you?!’
This girl had every intent on being polite, and thus answered rather apologetically after some more bitter accusations spewed out of this woman’s mouth. Now, if there is something that truly unites me, my wife, and my mother-in-law, it’s rude people like that. However, we said nothing as it was over rather quickly. My mother-in-law said some encouraging words to the girls after the Wicked Witch had wobbled away with whichever pie she decided to stuff her trout with. She also tipped the girls rather handsomely (not a common custom here in Sweden). We sat down to eat, but could not quite enjoy ourselves. We talked about the incident and began to get more and more agitated. ‘Nevermind,’ we said, ‘Idiots will always be around.’ They will get noted by their peers, and everyone around felt this hag had truly shamed herself.
We walked back to the car after about half an hour, ready to drive back home. There, we spotted the party and the she-troll among them. I felt a sensation like the one I had at age 10 when I punched the class bully in a terrible rage after he pushed me just a millimeter too far. I told my wife and her mother to go stay by the car, I’d be right back. They wondered what I was going to do, but soon realized.
I walked aggressively towards this horrid excuse of a woman, who seemed to be in the company of a few others; it’s possible she was a caretaker of some sort. In any case, I approached her and politely said, ‘Excuse me! I stood right behind you back there when you ordered. What you did to that girl was not right, it was outright rude, and you should absolutely know better. She was just trying to do her job, and you had no right in treating her poorly like that! If you ever come back here, I expect you to have a much better attitude.’
And with that, I turned around and walked away. She didn’t have the presence of mind to give me any reply, she just stood there with a baffled look on her face. Her coworkers/friends stood right beside her and heard every word I said, quite surely knowing what a witch the hag was. It was a small gesture, but nonetheless, an action that had to be taken. You can’t let bitter old harpies go around harassing young girls like that, or the world would fall into anarchy!”
The Teenage Punks Thought They Were Picking On A Nerd
“One year, a group of friends and I decided to go to the state fair. There were four or five of us, so a small group. One of my friends wanted to go on one of the faster, more intense rides and everyone else backed down. It was a ride in which single riders weren’t allowed, so I told him I’d go with him since he was new to the city and had heard things about the ride from other people.
While waiting in the long line (at least a good 40-50 minute wait), a group of teenagers decided they could sneak past everyone and cut in line in order to merge with their friends. I looked behind me and saw people whispering and looking a bit angry.
I usually don’t like to use my size (I’m 6’4″ and somewhat muscular since I lift weights every day) to my advantage and certainly don’t like to use it to intimidate people (people who know me would tell you I’m one of the nicest guys you’ll meet and that I rarely get angry) or show off my body. It bothers me to wear revealing clothing because I hate the negative stereotype of all weightlifters being spoiled pricks, so I just hide the fact that I lift weights by wearing baggy clothes.
I poked my head out of the line at the teenagers that cut in front of us and nicely said, ‘Hey, do you guys think you can go to the back of the line? Everyone back here has been waiting for at least half an hour.’
One of them looked back at me, getting smart, and said, ‘Deal with it, fairy.’
I told him again, a little bit more stern, ‘Just get to the back of the line, alright? People are getting ticked at you punks for thinking you can do whatever you want.’
This time, he thought it would be cute to come back to me, getting in my face and trying to make me back down. At that point, he was clearly getting angry and said, ‘Tell me one more time and I’ll knock you out.”
So I told him yet again to get to the back of the line. He laughed and as he went for a punch, I grabbed his fist, snatched him by the collar of his shirt, and threw him to ground, lifting him off his feet. Without thinking, I took off my shirt in a blind rage of self-defense and told him, ‘Take your stupid, spoiled face to the back of the line and quit acting like a little hoodlum before you regret it.’
His friends signaled for him to come back to them since they’d figured out I wouldn’t be an easy ‘fairy’ to push over (I wear glasses so my guess is that they assumed I couldn’t put up a fight), and they left the line. I can’t tell you how good that felt.”
If He Was Actually A Frequent Flyer, He Would Know Better
“I’m a pretty mellow guy who travels for a living. Usually, I don’t really let the small things get to me. However, a couple of years ago, I was on a flight that was already running 30 minutes late. I was thinking to myself that the connection was going to be tight, most likely involving running or a brisk walk for a mile or so through ATL. I was one of the last to board the plane and had to check my bag since there was no more room. The four or five people behind did the same thing. What are you going to do?
I began to work my way down the aisle and there was a guy there asking people to shift bags, move stuff that wouldn’t move, etc, because he was trying to get his ‘oversized’ bag to fit and there was obviously no room. He called for the flight attendant who walked up and said, ‘Sir, we are out of room. You will have to check your bag.’
Well, that was it for him. He went OFF on her. He started yelling things like, ‘This airline sucks,’ ‘I’m a million mile member,’ ‘I want your employee number and name,’ and so on.
At that point, I pretty much mentally snapped. I felt horrible for the flight attendant, who was just doing her job, and this guy spent five minutes making a fool out of himself and burning up time that we could be airborne. People were gawking, looking away, cringing, and overall just hoping he would stop so they could move on. I yelled, ‘SHUT UP, SHUT THE HECK UP!’
At that point, I was shaking with anger and continued to go off, ‘Take your bag to the front of the plane, check it, and stop with this insanity. You are what is wrong with air travel! Your sense of entitlement makes me want to puke. If you are a million mile flyer you know the rules of flying. You should know how this works. Why punish everyone on this flight? You have insulted this lovely young lady, you have made everyone on this plane uncomfortable with your little “show,” and I’m now another five minutes late for my connection. I want you and your little Napoleon Complex issues (he was about 5′ 5″) to shut up and sit down. Do WE have a problem?’ He started spluttering and looking all flustered, but didn’t say a single word.
Then somebody at the back of the plane started clapping, and soon the whole plane was applauding me. I just sat down and waited while everyone clapped and this guy took a long walk of shame to the front of the plane. The flight attendant thanked me and so did everyone else. I didn’t mean to do it but I just can’t stand people like that. The best part was I had free drinks for the flight, the flight attendant gave me a stack of free drink cards for my next couple of flights, and one of the passengers gave me a voucher for free Wifi that he had won. It was very satisfying.”