Four days ago, without having queue up or to wait in line, I bought a hyacinth with dark purple buds. Now that the buds are open, the entire first floor of our apartment — all two rooms– are seeped with the scent of hyacinth. This is the first of spring.
Over the last four days, I have also been struck by the habits of people who are or should be waiting in line. At the community center, when all of the treadmills were occupied, at least two different people just stood there waiting for a treadmill to open. Just stood there. Waiting. These people did not look to see who was almost finished and ask if they could have the machine next. They didn’t hop on an empty stationary bike, step climber, or eliptical machine just to pass the time. No, these people wanted a treadmill so they stood in the middle of the machines — for fifteen minutes — and waited. I can’t decide if they showed a zen-like patience or a lack of community workout room social skills.
On the same day that I picked up my little touch of spring, I also walked to our local post office to pick up a package that the mailman claims he had already tried to deliver three times, but we all know that he only tried to deliver it once before making me wait in line. Our local post office is never fun. One long line for people with a package pick up queues up in front of one window. An even longer line snakes through the store for people who want to mail a package or buy stamps. Even though this line breaks up to four windows, the line is never quick. A sixth window is occupied by a person who provides “special services”, but I have yet to figure out what those services are or even who is allowed in that particularly short line. When it comes to line waiting, I am pretty patient. I show up with book in hand, pick my place in line, and start reading until I reach the front.
Enevitably someone, usually an older woman, will walk into the post office, look around, and charge immediately to the front of a line. Clearly the woman is also lacking in post office line-waiting social skills. Although no one in line says anything to her about where she should be, which is very clear because the lines are very clearly marked, no one at the window will help her either. Every person in line will walk around her when a window opens up. After not being immediately helped, she will then walk to the front of the package pick up line and the same steps will occur again until finally she will curse in her first (and possibly only) language storm, around the post office, and leave.
Watching this happen always makes me wonder if queueing up does not occur in her first culture. Maybe getting in line is not a universal, but it sure looks pretty obvious when the long ropes are out and people are standing diligentlly in one place. Did this particular woman think that maybe we were all idiots because we did not immediately walk to the front of the line and stand near a window for help?
When Dave and I were returning to the States from Italy, I watched one middle aged woman from India slowly make her way past people who were clearly in line in front of her. We were all waiting in a very long, sinuous, line to have our passports checked, and her 24ish-year-old son was clearly appauled by her actions. As she approached us, I casually shifted from one side of the line space we occupied to the other so that she could not weave her way past me. She was clear in her intent, and I was clear in mine. I was winning, too, and pretty happy that I had found a fun way to occupy some of my time, until Dave figured out what I was doing. Rather than fight the advances of this middle-aged woman, Dave let her slip by as we turned a corner on the line. Ah well, this lady could have taught the other lady at the post office a thing or two about waiting in line.
