While going through things in my “de-clutter mode” I came across a small blank notebook that I didn’t really recognize. I opened it to find it mostly blank. The first two pages had some writing on them and the last page had some addresses and phone numbers. Upon seeing these pages, I realized it was the notebook I brought with me when I came up to Portland from California to look for a place to move to. I found the two pages of writing interesting and I remember the puzzling incident quite well. In fact, every time I drive by that McDonalds, I think of the incident. Here is the writing:
I was sitting down, having coffee at a McDonald’s near the freeway on ramp, waiting for an important phone call before getting on the freeway and heading back to California. I had the “opportunity” to observe several groups of teenagers, each one noisier than the last as they came in, sat down and interacted with one another.
I noted how every word out of their mouth was intended to shock and shock loudly. They didn’t care that there were elderly people or little kids in earshot. They just cared that they were noticed. Within ten minutes of arriving, they settled down. They had disturbed, interrupted, annoyed, and shocked sufficiently. Then the next group would come in and the process would repeat.
I thought back and couldn’t think of a time when I acted like this or when I had seen other groups of teens do this. It made me wonder why they do this. Is it a sign of the times? Is it a sign of affluence and a sense of entitlement? Never had I seen anything like it, any place.
I don’t know. It just made me sad to be sitting in the same space with such a show of self-centeredness and disrespect.
That is pretty weird. I feel like I see groups of men do the same thing in bars…for what reason, I cannot imagine.
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I actually had forgotten that these kids were all male until you mentioned seeing men do it. But yeah, they were all men.
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Of course they were. Male creatures in groups are predictably uncivilized.
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I, too, have seen groups of men act like that. In fact, I have seen my husband change into one of those creatures when he’s with a group of his friends. I don’t even recognize him when that happens. They are not quite as bad as you describe, but guys who have good vocabularies are suddenly reduced to teens strutting out their knowledge of foul language. It is a strange phenomenon among the males of our species.
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My own son tales me he believes a word is only a word and that none is worse or better than another, that it is the intent and inflection with which it is delivered that makes it “good” or “bad”. Never-the-less, I’ve still maintained he not speak that way around me.
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How many years ago was this? Does the same thing still happen? And yes, I do believe it has something to do with chest beating from the male species. 🙂
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It was in 2008, while I was in the process of moving from California to Oregon. I haven’t seen it since, but that’s probably because I haven’t visited many places where teens hangout as they get off of the bus afterschool.
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