More slamming doors
I can deal with folks not holding the door (“Slamming the Door to Courtesy,” Nov. 16, by Ross Werland). I figure they don’t have eyes in the back of their heads and most folks are preoccupied (or self-involved) so they don’t notice. However, my pet peeve is folks who cut me off when I open a door to enter.
I have a second part-time job at a department store. There are double doors on the entrances, and they open out. When I arrive for work, I pull open the right-hand door, and invariably someone barges right out, blocking my entrance. Mind you, there are two doors, and I’m using the right-hand door, so they could push open their right hand door, but instead they just barge out the open door. Occasionally, someone will say thank you, but that’s no better than waving “thank you” at someone you have just cut off in traffic.
–Mary Chin, Waukegan
I have not given up on courtesy. I refuse to. That would put me in the same category as all the rude souls in the world. I have often wondered if people have become oblivious to rude behavior, or is it that they just don’t care. Maybe they’re too busy to notice, or they are just plain ol’ “better than you.”
My way of dealing with rude behavior is that if I have the opportunity, I try to enlighten those with rude behavior in a subtle manner. When someone does not hold the door for me, I reply “thank you” in the same tone of voice that I would use if they had held the door for me. When I hold the door for someone, and they do not acknowledge, I do the same “thank you.”
It is quite interesting to see the reactions. Some people still do not get it. I can only hope that maybe someday they will. I hope others do not give up on courtesy, because then where would we be?
–Betsy Sillars, Wilmette
I learned proper door behavior not at the mall but in the woods. Walking with others single file through the woods, the one in the lead would hold interfering branches out of his way and continue to hold them until the person following could grab them. Failure to do so resulted in a branch smack in the face for the follower and a severe dressing down for the leader.
More generally, I fail to understand why someone who has had doors close in their face doesn’t learn from the experience.
–Peter Neubacher, Wildwood
Praise for the Poo Crew
Editor’s note: Last week Q ran a letter from Jean SmilingCoyote, who objected to the notion presented in a Nov. 10 story that folks should consider volunteering to clean up after horses in the upcoming Thanksgiving Day parade. Here’s a response–and the last word, we promise–from the Poo Crew.
The dictionary definition of the word volunteer is “a person who enters into a transaction with no promise of pay.”
The Target Thanksgiving Parade could not go on without the many volunteers who give unselfishly of their Thanksgiving morning. Currently and in the past no volunteer for the Poo Crew or other committees ever hinted, suggested or directly asked for monetary pay.
Cheer and laughs are all we expect for compensation in the spirit of the holiday. Shame on you, Jean–where is your holiday spirit?
–John P. Mitchel, chairman for the Poo Crew
Cathryn J. Slaga, vice chairman for the Poo Crew
