Wednesday, January 31, 2007

I'm Old and Cranky

I must be getting old and cranky because this event that happened recently bothered me.

I was shopping early one morning at my local Jewel food store.
As usual I didn't make a list and had to go up and down the aisles to refresh my brain as to what needed to be purchased for my household.
I encountered this family on the grocery side of the store and they seemed to be within one or two aisles of me throughout my entire shopping trip.

The family consisted of a father, mother and a boy child approximately 5 years old.
This family thought that the store and the products in the store were there for their own amusement.

In the produce department the family took turns sampling the "finger foods". The father and son had a grape toss contest where they tossed grapes up into the air and tried to catch them in their mouths.

As I shopped up and down the grocery aisles the father and child would come whizzing by as they attempted to play either tag or hide and go seek with the mother. It was at this point that I began to get annoyed. They by no means were using their "indoor voices". Instead it was full out loud talking and at times yelling.

Over in the non grocery section (shampoo, soap, gift wrap...) the father and son found the toy aisle. They were literally playing catch the length of the entire aisle. The mother even took part in the play time as they played keep away with a ball.

It was good to see that the family made the best of what is a mundane task.
But am I that prudish and old to think that perhaps just a little thought of the other people in the store should have been considered? It was early morning but there were still at least 35 or more people in the store not counting the staff of the store. Another interesting thing is that no one working in the facility thought to ask them to tone it down.

I MUST be getting old, because if I ever acted that way in a store my parents would have marched my little behind out to the car where I would have sat out the remainder of the trip.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I must be old too then because if I ever acted like that I would have gotten my behind beat!
I've seen adults too misbehaving in public and I can only assume that there parents let them run ammuck in the store when they were kids. lol