where are the manners?

{{Disclaimer - this is not insinuating that everyone in delaware fits this type of character, just a few that I have had the fortune of running into lately :-P}}

In retrospect being from the south I was always 'learning my manners' pretty much all the time. It was a constant thing and just a given. I never said 'huh?' to my parents or any adults in my life or strangers. Or 'what?' It was always yes/no mam, yes/no sir and that was that. When I was working in the school as a school counselor and the kids would say 'huh' to me it would irk me like you wouldn't believe! Then one of the kindergarten teachers asked a child "are you a goose?!" and the little girl looked at her like she was crazy and said "HUH?!" The teacher said "You sound like a goose saying HUH HUH HUH" lol So ever since then, when people say 'huh' I giggle because it reminds me of them being a goose :-P
Needless to say, our boys will be saying yes/no mam and yes/no sir, that is just normal to me and Marcin agreed that it was fine with him, well one week he is fine with it and the next he usually changes his mind but I am going with him being fine with it since I am home with them 5 days a week :-) I WIN! hehe

At the store the other day, the cute little old lady was slowly walking to the door and a man about 25 or so just cut right in front of her and went inside. Didn't bother to hold the door for her, just whizzed right by without a care :-(

In my neighborhood, which granted is quite a melting pot of ethinicities and I while I don't know everything about the various cultures in my neighborhood, is it so wrong and rude for your neighbor to say hi while passing you on the sidewalk? In the south, EVERYONE talks to EVERYONE! Whether you know them or not....you just say hi when someone catches your eye. Not here, we will have lived in our house 4 years this summer and there are still people I can pass on the SAME sidewalk who I see all the time that do not speak or even look at me. They just look straight ahead and keep walking :-( I, of course, still say hello. Or just wave at people who drive through the neighborhood! I mean I see the SAME people and the SAME cars, there aren't that many homes in my neighborhood, yet hardly anyone speaks to each other. It was the same way in our last neighborhood and it was smaller than this one!

Even when we are out and about, most people just seem to be out for themselves and while I get that, does it really take that much time to hold a door open for someone when their hands/arms are full? Or if you see them struggling with a big stroller and a crying child? Or just hold the door because they are coming in right behind you or going out as you are coming in?

I just don't get it.  Whenever I go home to South Carolina, I find that people will speak to me and I have to readjust myself and remind myself that its ok to talk to people that I pass. To wave at people and they will wave back, to SLOW down :-)

I will never forget when a group of us when to my dad's house in NC mountains. I can't remember if it was Kelly's first time that far south or not, but she hadn't been there much and she was laughing because everyone waved at everyone on the road and said hi in the stores lol
And then one trip to Mississippi for my grandfathers funeral, Marcin came with me, thank goodness because I couldn't have done it without him. He was like my 2nd dad and helped raise me, I learned so much from him and miss him everyday! So we had the service and we were driving to the cementary which was about 25 minutes away. Anyone who saw our convoy passing immediately pulled over and waited for us all to pass. Some even got out of their cars and stood there with their hands over their hearts as a salute, I still shiver when I remember that day. Marcin said he had never seen anything like that. But to me, that was the norm...I don't think I have ever seen that happen since I have lived here :-( Not to say it doesn't happen, I just haven't experienced it.

I guess the point of all this is I want our boys to open doors, to be considerate of others, to be respectful of others, empathize, and have good manners. We are going to do our best to teach them these things, I just hope it is reinforced in the outside world.