YOU OLD PEOPLE!

A couple times a week, I go to the gym to lift some light weights. (Apparently, bearing my own weight is not enough.) I do 3 sets, 8 reps each, on 5 machines. Each set takes about 30 seconds which means 15 minutes total, because I don’t dally. I’m alone in this endeavor, however. The vast majority here sit on their butts staring at their phones, (except the gal above).

Yesterday, my last stop was the leg machine. A big guy, about 40, was grunting through his 200 lb reps. He finished, noticed me waiting, pretended I wasn’t there, then casually scrolled through his TikTok. (I know because I have one.) After several minutes, he got up, placed his phone on the seat (so I couldn’t use it), and walked slowly around the gym before returning.

“Hey,” I said, (quietly fuming but with a big smile on my face), “May I work in with you? It only takes me 30 seconds.”

“You OLD people are so fucking impatient!” he barked. “You always want to ‘work in,’ then you just FUCKING TAKE OVER the machines!” His face burned bright vermillion red. (Was he having a heart attack? Would I have to use CPR? At least he wasn’t drowning, so mouth-to-mouth was out.)

“Old people?” I repeated. “‘I said I only need 30 seconds. Does that sound like a takeover to you?”

Begrudgingly, he let me use the machine. An older man nearby said, “Good for you for speaking up. They all do it here, you know. Unfortunately, I’ve given up.”

Look, we “old people” are not impatient. We just can’t afford to waste our limited time. Besides, people matter more to us than phones and we’d never purposely keep someone waiting. Still, I seem to run into more than my share of grown-ass brats. Either I’m just paying attention or over sensitive but it feels wrong.

This morning, I waited in line for gas. (I always leave some space between me and the folks filling up so they don’t have to breathe my fumes in the 100 degree heat.) Suddenly, the car in line behind me pulled out, squeezed to my left, then angled in sideways between me and the guy I was waiting for. The pump attendant was standing right there!

“Did you see that?” I asked him incredulously.

“Yeah,” he said.

“Are you gonna do anything?”

“No.”

When a young woman gets out, I get out, too, and approach her.

“Any reason your time is more important than mine?” I ask loudly.

She turns her back as if to render me invisible. I almost say something snarky but she’s half my age and twice my size, (two, major intimidating factors) so I bite my tongue.

Later, as I’m filling my tank, an older man on the other side of the pump confides, “I’m so glad you said something to her. That’s happened to me before.”

Call me crazy, but isn’t compliance with bad behavior complicity? Isn’t that why we’re in an unwinnable war: because our pathetic government capitulates to every whim of a crude, chaotic, characterless and badly-behaved man? These capitulators aren’t worth the leather shoes they stand in. (Yes, MJ, JD, PB, PH, MR, RK, . . .if the shoe fits.) Speak up! If not for yourself, then at least for your neighbor.

I’m all for the “No Kings” marches but charity does begin at home. Empower your friends and neighbors to stand up to bullies. Set the example! To paraphrase Teddy Roosevelt, ‘If you fail, at least fail while daring greatly so that your place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”