I'm not tied down to a job anywhere so when I go out grocery shopping it is in the daytime. And in the daytime is your biggest influx of seniors and even older timers who are out shopping, too. And now that I'm thinking about it, I'm wondering if cold weather has anything to do with this. Cold weather contributing to making older folks more cranky and less considerate. I'm trying to remember if I came across this while in living and visiting in Florida, or if it was this prevalent here when it was summer. I'm thinking that warmer weather lends itself to a more relaxed attitude so maybe it isn't as noticeable.

I'm getting a little ahead of what I'm trying to say here. What I have noticed lately is how rude too many of the oldtimers can be while shopping. I'm talking about how they--meaning the ones that are guilty of this--step right in front of you and snatch a product off the shelf. It could even have been the very one you had been looking at and was just reaching for but they wouldn't know it because they won't meet your eyes. And there is no "Excuse me" from them, either.

Case in point. I'm at the Entenmann's bread outlet store yesterday. Their bread shelves are looking pretty bare. There's lots of Buttermilk and Country White bread but only one or two loaves of any other kind. A couple of Whole Wheat, one Hawaiian, and one Oatnut. I'm standing directly in front of the Hawaiian and the Oatnut. I know what the carbs are in the Oatnut so I picked up the Hawaiian to see what the carbs were in that. An old guy comes wheeling up the aisle, stops beside me, and nearly gets whiplash from reaching for that Oatnut before I can grab it. You know that fella in that commercial that goes on about oats being the best thing since baked bread and how its so good for your heart and stuff. I'm pretty sure that this bread snatching old guy in the aisle right beside me is a sworn believer in the gospel of the Oat because of the way he made sure that I wasn't going to take that last dod-gammed loaf on the shelf. He whips it in his basket and totters on before I can even take a breath.

Was I going to buy that loaf of bread? Probably. But, as you can see, I didn't get a chance. It was the same principle as ditching someone in line, is what it was.

This same scenario has happened at Kroger too in the last few weeks. An old woman, and chic looking but kinda fragile looking, too, steps right in front of me as I'm pawing over the T-bones that were on sale. She's got some other kind of steak in her hand and she thrusts it at me and asks if this is the one on sale or not. It didn't look like it was to her. Politely, I mumble something about it not being the one. Then, she arches over the display case directly in front of me and says, "Oh, these must be them" and starts rooting through them. I'm standing there with one of them in my hand but now can't get to any of the other ones because she's in the way. She takes her time and I'm left to wait till she's done. Is it worth it to say something and ruffle feathers? Sometimes it is. Other times it just makes me more riled and I carry it with me longer than if I just stewed about how impolite she was.

Another example. Kroger again. Old man, the faded-looking kind. I'm in front of some cans of something in an aisle. He comes along and steps in front of me and blurts out, "I need to get here" and muscles his way in. No apology, no niceness, just LET ME IN, and no thank you's afterwards. At the meat counter at Kroger, the same kind of thing happens again.

I don't know what this is, this jostling of space. Bill theorizes that the old people are all too aware of the shortness of time they have left on earth so that's why they are curt. I don't know what it is. No wonder old people get a bad rap. You run into too many of these out there and before you know it you've got a stereoptype. Sure makes a bad name for the rest of us who don't plan on getting bitter and impatient and/or just plain unaware-that-there-is-anyone-else-in-this-world as they get older.

I think that as one gets older this attitude of "I've been around a long time and I don't have to take anything off anyone" goes to their heads. Or rather that it translates sloppily to "Make way for me, I deserve to have first dibs."