Just De

Just De
Just De in Manhattan

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

C is for Common Courtesy

What is wrong with the world? Have people lost their minds? Have people lost their morals? Did they ever have them in the first place? I remember when I has a little girl, good manners were something that were instilled in me at a very early age. My parents, born and raised Southerners, were very quick to hold me and my older sister accountable for not being polite. There were very specific rules in our house growing up. We were not allowed to answer an adult with saying "what" or a response less flattering. We were not allowed to enter a room with adult people without introducing ourselves and if a grown person dropped something on the ground, it was our job as the younger body to pick it. May seem silly today, but these were just a few of the common courtesy tidbits we were supposed to be aware of at all times.



My very fine home training and upbringing led me down the road of gratefulness recently when I read about the woman who won part of the recent $640,000,000 jackpot in the lottery. This woman was part of an office pool, or shall I say, work pool that put money together in effort to win the grand prize jackpot. Needless to say when she said she won the grand prize with a ticket that she purchased on her own, I was as outraged as many that she decided to exclude her McDonalds co-workers. It's very hard to imagine that the tickets that she purchased with her fellow fast-food workers weren't part of the lucky ticket that won the pot. I guess I have a problem with her selfish attitude that her co-workers shouldn't expect any of the winnings especially since it is difficult to distinguish which ticket was purchased with pool money and which was purchased with her own. Honestly speaking, and I can confidently say this, I would share the money with the workers. Especially since the it is impossible to determine which ticket was for the "pool" and which one was hers and hers alone.


I was a part of an office pool and I was very fortunate. We drew up an agreement, photocopied all the tickets and all planned to share the millions of dollars at stake if our numbers came in. I also bought tickets on my own. Now, if I won with the outside tickets, not saying I would have split the winnings the way I would have if the numbers were on the pool purchased tickets. But I would have given my co-workers a generous consolation prize. No kidding. After all, it's all about common courtesy. I know it seems easy to judge what we would do in a situation like this, but I honestly believe if people practiced common courtesy and politeness a little more often, the right thing to do would be second nature.

1 comment:

Shay said...

I thought the same thing! As soon as they bought the tickets, they should have all signed the back. Then there couldn't be any questions. I also like the photocopy idea.

And unfortunately, to answer your question, yes common courtesy is dead. People have lost their minds, morals and everything else.