What. The.
Sep. 15th, 2007 11:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
olorielAs most of you will know by now, I am living on a former farm now.
Among the many things that we inherited from our predecessors (such as the un-insulated roof, the rotted south wall, the decrepit Hobbit hole of a cellar, etc) were a raspberry thicket, a lot of brambles, a hazel bush and a walnut tree.
Now I think it's perfectly okay if one of the many people who hike or ride past our house picks a blackberry or two, or if they collect a handful of walnuts as they pass.
However, as I got home from going grocery shopping today, there was a car parked underneath our walnut tree, and an elderly woman and a small blond child - her grandson, I assume - were collecting walnuts in two huge plastic bags.
I parked my car, then joined them and said, "Excuse me, don't you think you should at least ask?"
Now I don't know about you guys, but if I was caught at something that technically constitutes as theft, I'd at least be embarrassed. And I'd at least apologise.
What did the dear grandmother - well-dressed, well-kept, complacent - say?
"I thought nobody was collecting those." Grinning.
I was speechless for a second.
What I should have said is "... so because you think nobody collects them you have the right to park your car on private ground (in a natural preserve, I should add) and pick them up? So if I see your car somewhere and think nobody's driving it I can take it, too?!"
I was, as I said, speechless, and what I eventually said was "Well, we do. They just keep growing, but that doesn't mean we don't collect them."
"Do you want them, now?" she asked, in the "Don't bitch, there's more than enough" kind of tone.
And I am too kind-hearted, and it wasn't about the nuts really (we do have too many, but is it too much to ask that people at least ask before taking them by the barrel?!), and I was still kind of shell-shocked by her impertinence, and the cute little blond kid was looking on confusedly, so I said "Oh, take them - but ask the next time." She said she would, in the "Who are you anyway" kind of tone.
(I was afraid of offending, too. I should have gone right ahead, really: She was the one stealing from my grounds!)
But the more I think about it, the angrier makes me, because this is a phenomenon I see too frequently nowadays. People seem to think that whatever looks okay to them is okay to do, seem to think that everything they don't get punished for is just fine.
People complain how the kids nowadays don't show any respect for other people and their property.
Well, small wonder if the people who teach them treat other people and their property like things that happen to other people.
I bet this dear old lady is the first to whine, if her grandson gets into some messy property offense a few years from now, "I don't know where he got that from!"
Well bitch, he got it from YOU, too.
Among the many things that we inherited from our predecessors (such as the un-insulated roof, the rotted south wall, the decrepit Hobbit hole of a cellar, etc) were a raspberry thicket, a lot of brambles, a hazel bush and a walnut tree.
Now I think it's perfectly okay if one of the many people who hike or ride past our house picks a blackberry or two, or if they collect a handful of walnuts as they pass.
However, as I got home from going grocery shopping today, there was a car parked underneath our walnut tree, and an elderly woman and a small blond child - her grandson, I assume - were collecting walnuts in two huge plastic bags.
I parked my car, then joined them and said, "Excuse me, don't you think you should at least ask?"
Now I don't know about you guys, but if I was caught at something that technically constitutes as theft, I'd at least be embarrassed. And I'd at least apologise.
What did the dear grandmother - well-dressed, well-kept, complacent - say?
"I thought nobody was collecting those." Grinning.
I was speechless for a second.
What I should have said is "... so because you think nobody collects them you have the right to park your car on private ground (in a natural preserve, I should add) and pick them up? So if I see your car somewhere and think nobody's driving it I can take it, too?!"
I was, as I said, speechless, and what I eventually said was "Well, we do. They just keep growing, but that doesn't mean we don't collect them."
"Do you want them, now?" she asked, in the "Don't bitch, there's more than enough" kind of tone.
And I am too kind-hearted, and it wasn't about the nuts really (we do have too many, but is it too much to ask that people at least ask before taking them by the barrel?!), and I was still kind of shell-shocked by her impertinence, and the cute little blond kid was looking on confusedly, so I said "Oh, take them - but ask the next time." She said she would, in the "Who are you anyway" kind of tone.
(I was afraid of offending, too. I should have gone right ahead, really: She was the one stealing from my grounds!)
But the more I think about it, the angrier makes me, because this is a phenomenon I see too frequently nowadays. People seem to think that whatever looks okay to them is okay to do, seem to think that everything they don't get punished for is just fine.
People complain how the kids nowadays don't show any respect for other people and their property.
Well, small wonder if the people who teach them treat other people and their property like things that happen to other people.
I bet this dear old lady is the first to whine, if her grandson gets into some messy property offense a few years from now, "I don't know where he got that from!"
Well bitch, he got it from YOU, too.
