Monday, September 28, 2009

Travelers Disgrace


Good Morning,

I’m back from delightful travels and working events with favorite friends. This retirement thing for me has some drawbacks and it was plain ol’ fun to get back before the camera once again and see if the old skills were still around.

I’ll leave that assessment to the producers and directors of my professional events, but in my mind I had a great time no matter what.

Traveling does hone the observational senses and that is the subject of today’s blog.

Here is what I noticed at the various airports that connected my travels.

Elegance, decorum, and courtesy in America’s travelers are missing.

I cannot believe what some people chose to ware while traveling. In fact, I am disgusted with the social graces of America’s youth and young families.

To wit:

The predominance of flip-flops as the foot ware of choice is abhorrent. There was one case of smelly sneakers with no socks that even sickened the security people and they see distasteful agglutinations, ignorance and stupidity all day long. One TSA inspector told me that one woman tried to smuggle her tiny dog on board in a carry on and was willing to put the mutt through the x-ray scanner.

Short shorts is another obnoxious trend in warm climate travel attire, so is the airline’s greed to sell cheap food at high prices. People are not buying it, so on board they come, flip flopping, with too many carry-ons and balancing conflicting boxed aroma’s from pizzas and other odorous fast-foods to ruin the stale air we are already breathing.

Carry-ons? It’s supposed to one reasonable size bag and one personal item. Yeah, right! With the airlines now charging twenty dollars per checked bag, America’s itinerants are bringing more bags on board.

I don’t want to sound like a curmudgeon, but these are real observations from a trained eye. OK, OK, I am a curmudgeon, but some people are really stupid, discourteous and lacking in grace.

If you are one of them, please send me your travel schedule, so I can alter mine.

2 comments:

Topher08 said...

I enjoyed reading the details of your travels, and, more importantly, your astute and keen observations of the way people act and dress in public as of late. It is extremely refreshing to hear from someone who recognizes the rapid decline of decorum and courtesy of people in the last decade or so. I do not think you are a curmudgeon at all and kudos to you on calling it like it is. Take Care.

Anonymous said...

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): The coming week will have something to offend and agitate everyone -- except you. Whines and moans and yelps will ring out across the land, even as you're emanating poise and aplomb. You may be tempted to brazenly exploit everyone's vulnerability and seize control of your corner of the world, but I think that would be shortsighted of you. A better strategy for capitalizing on your advantage would be to dole out large doses of mercy, making sure that the people who will be important to your future don't lose their way.

 
Free Blog CounterEnglish German Translation