Saturday, March 27, 2010
Early retirement
I'm apparently joining the masses of grumpy old folks' out there now, as I begin my rant about 'the youth of today', and praise the aged people of Finland. But I was deeply disappointed the other day, as I struggled with an amazingly heavy 'winter-stroller' seating a fairly heavy 1-year-old , at the lack of helpfulness of people, especially young people. On a simple hour-long trip to the supermarket, there were three counts of inconsiderate youth.
1. The tram ride there: The tram was filled with 17-18-year-olds going home or wherever after school. I made eye-contact with several of them, and they all looked the other way, before I had to shout "Can somebody please help me?", and a middle-aged man halfway up the tram grudgingly got up to assist.
2. When I was getting off at the supermarket, an old lady, herself on a walking stick, came up to insist she could help. I was like "Oh my - are you sure? It's heavy!" and looked around for other possibilities. A 20-ish year old girl came up and briefly muttered, "I can help" - at the granny, who didn't hear her (surprise surprise), so she shrugged her shoulders and walked out in a hurry before I could say anything. But that granny was STRONG! I guess old people have to help themselves in this country, judging by how 'helpful' everyone has been.
3. When I was returning home, I managed to get on and off the tram with the help of some foreigners, who were happy to come to my assistance, but I forgot to get something from the supermarket, so I dropped in at the corner store, which has aisles so narrow the stroller can barely fit through. I paid for my groceries and had huge difficulty opening the heavy doors and pushing the stroller at the same time. Instead of helping around 10 teenagers squeezed past me and the huge stroller, went through the doors and walked on, leaving the door to swing back against the front wheels. Finally, and old granny (again), came, took the handles of the stroller and said "You go open the door, I'll push this out."
Seriously? Can I start my old age now by saying, "What's wrong with the youth of today?"
Does that qualify my for early retirement and pension? (If so, I'll post more horror stories that have happened over the last couple of weeks here! Hehehe)
fon @ 5:47 PM link to post * *