Posts
So, I go to get a pack of smokes a minute ago -- because, Hi: I'm flawed -- and walk toward the convenience store door at the same time an adorable little rosy-cheeked girl of about seven years approaches it. She looks up at me with big blue eyes and reaches up for the handle, then, using all her body weight, pulls the door open and holds it for me.
"Aw, thank you sweetie," I said, completely surprised by thoughtfullness in a child during an age when I thought all manners had been lost. I imagined she was hurrying in to get some apple juice or, perhaps if she was lucky, a sweet treat with money from her mother who was pumping gas during all this. I remembered the excitement of having some of Dad's change in my pocket and being given carte blanche to get a candy bar or a comic book or perhaps some little trinket from the store. So, of course, I added, "But you go right ahead, dear."
She just stared at me, straining to keep the door open.
So I added, "Ladies first, you know."
"But I'm just a girl. I'm not a lady."
"Well, heh-heh, then you're a little lady."
Her face was reddening as she pulled against the weight of the door, and I could feel the heat from the asphalt on my own face. It's about 100 degrees outside. Yet, she didn't move. So I arched my arm toward the top of the door and held it as well, offering her a chance to scurry in under me. She remained.
"See, it's good manners for me to allow you in first, because that's what men do for women. It's gentlemanly."
"But you're old and my mom told me to hold the door for old people."
You little shit... "I'm not ol-- listen, kid: that's ageist."
"What's ayjis?"
"You. You're being ageist. Now, you have certain privileges you can enjoy as a young lady, and having a man hold the door for you is one of them."
She scrunched her chubby face, "What is it when girls aren't treated the same as boys?"
"That's called sexist."
She thought about it for a second and then yelled across the parking lot, "Mom! What's sexis?"
The officer explained to me some of the parameters of "verbal harassment of a minor," I think is what he called it...
