Let’s Play a Game

Ok, I’m not expecting anyone who reads this to get some sort of deeper meaning out of it, or have some kind of uplifting, thought-provoking experience.  I simply have a question.

Imagine, if you will, that you are in a crowded sandwich shop.  There are several lines, all of them equally long except, for whatever reason, the one you happen to be in.

So you’re standing there, and some guy walks in.  He sees the short line and casually walks up and stands behind the lady who is currently ordering, effectively cutting in front of you.

Now here’s the question.  Do you:

A) Do nothing.
B) Immediately let the guy know that he has cut in front of you and demand that he step aside.
C) Let the guy order, then place your order and then walk over to the guy, who is in the middle of a casual conversation, and inform him that he cut in front of you, following that up with a lecture on common courtesy.

I’ll give you a moment to decide.

 Ok…made your choice?  Good.  Keep it in mind.  We’ll get to it in a moment.

So, my wife and I walk into this place last Friday night and it’s packed.  There are five lines at this main counter area.  We get into one and stand there for a while before I notice that off to the side, there’s a register all by itself.  It’s usually the pickup area, but since there are so many people, they’ve opened it up as a sixth line.  I see that there’s only one lady in line there, so I walk over and stand behind her.  She places her order and steps aside.  I step up and clarify with the lady behind the counter that I am allowed to order there.  She says yes, so I call my wife over and we order our food to go.  We get our drinks and then go find a small table to sit at as we wait.

A few minutes later, an elderly guy walks up to me.  I recognize him as the man who was standing against the wall next to the register when I walked up to it.

"Excuse me, sir," he says.  "I just want you to know I was waiting in line and you cut in front of me."

Now, like I said, it appeared to me that the man was standing against the wall.  He was definitely not standing in line behind the first lady.  It looked to me as if he had already ordered and was waiting.  I tell him exactly that.

"No, I was in line and you just stepped right in." he says.

See what I’m getting at here?  Who in their right mind waits until AFTER someone cuts in line and does their business to say anything?  That’s basically what I ask the man.

"If you were in line and I cut in front of you, why didn’t you say something?" I ask.

"Well, I’m saying something now."

Hmmm…Ok.  That makes absolutely no sense to me, but I humor him for a while longer.

"Well, it’s too late now, the order has already been placed," I say.  "All you had to do was say something and I would have stepped aside."

And here’s where it gets good.

"Well, it’s common courtesy whether you know it or not," he says.  "You should have asked if anyone was in line before you just cut in."

"Sir," I calmly respond.  "All you had to do was say something.  I can’t do anything about it now.  All you had to do was speak up."

To be honest, at this point, I don’t remember one bit of what the man says.

I do remember him sitting and talking to the lady who ordered before me, bringing up the fact that he served in the Navy for 30 years.  I respect the man for his service, but no member of the military that I’ve ever known is so in need of acknowledgement that he mentions his service to total strangers out of the blue.  But perhaps I’m just being petty.

I suppose the universe made things right though, because even though my order was placed first, his food came out before mine.  I hope he’s happy.

Here’s the moral of the story, my dear readers: The ONLY correct answer to the question I asked at the beginning of this is B. If someone is dumb enough to cut in front of you in line, the only proper way to handle it is to IMMEDIATELY alert the dumbass to his blunder.

You choose to do nothing?  Then you lose the right to do so much as mumble about it under your breath. 

You choose to do as the person and my story did and wait ’til after the situation is all but over?  Well then first of all, what damn planet are you from?  And second, you deserve to be walked on, even if, as in my case, it’s unintentional.

*deep breath* Ok….like I said, just needed to vent…no deeper meaning intended here.  Just thought I needed to provide a public service.  You can thank me later.