In this situation what would you have said? Observation of 2 minute silence.

[doughnutty]

Before I start I just want to say that I think it should be but, I'm not evangellical about it. If you choose not to, that's fine, as long as you don't stop others who want to. I work in retail, on mat leave atm, and have often had to serve (silently) customers who ignored it.

So....
I sat down to try to snatch a cuppa and a bacon sarnie in Tesco cafe this morning. DD was due a sleep so I was hoping she wouldn't kick off as it was almost 11am.

There was a tannoy (not easy to hear over the noise of the shop but given the time it seemed obvious to me that it was) informing everyone that the 2 minute silence would take place shortly. Some staff appeared from behind the scenes and stood in the cafe.

As the place quietened, I was aware of a woman sitting at the next table talking softly. I presumed she hadn't heard the announcement or was not observing it for her own reasons. She was asking her husband why the till staff weren't standing when the cafe staff were, and how it was so disrespectful of the event.

I was wondering if I was braver what I would've said. But I can't think what I would've said. I still can't work out her out and I've been thinking about it all day.

Btw, I know some of you will say MYOB but I'm seriously interested in trying to understand her logic.

I think it's probably time to start a Facebook campaign calling for people to mark any designated Silence by frenzied masturbation in favour of Whateveritis. It would have about as much actual effect, and you could also call for public execution of anyone who didn't JOIN IN and look like even more of a loon.

I have had sex with quite a few squaddies, and that might be my way of remembering them (not that all of them are dead, at least not to my knowledge, and if any of them are dead I didn't do it).

SGVB find some respect. If you don't want to observe it that is fine but your crude suggestion is offensive both to those who do observe and to those who fight in our armed forces. Yes I realise that standing in silence has no actual effect but it is a SYMBOLIC MARK OF RESPECT you ignorant b1nt!
I do not believe it is anyone's duty to police the general public but when someone tried to talk to me during the 2 min silence on Sunday at work I simply said "I am observing the 2 min silence" and refused to engage in any conversation/serving him (work in retail at weekend) until the silence was over. It is my right to choose to observe just as it is his right to choose not to.

AN excellent demonstration of how the more people yell for 'Respect' the more they merit pointing and laughing instead.

And while we're at it did you walk past the memorial service going on in your town pointing and laughing at those showing respect? Or did you keep your mouth shut? Very easy to be brave/offensive online isn't it?

I have always observed the minutes silence since I was a child. My parents walked me to the monument in the centre of our village where the names of nearly all my friends appeared in the form of their grandfathers or uncles or other relations. One local family lost 4 brothers and I always thought how it would be if I lost all my brothers in a few years.
Then I worked in a place where all work shut down and we had a ceremony and that included during the falklands where friends of my dh had served.

So it has always been a private but meaningful moment for me. Of course it changes nothing so in a way it is a selfish act. But I do it wherever I am, even if alone at home.

But the social pressure to comply irritates me. Have a public outrage that 11 poncey footballers can't have a poppy sewn on their shirt strikes me as the very definition of a meaningless bout of holier than thou.

To go back to the OP: no I wouldn't say anything, but I would think it's off to talk through the Silence when what your saying is a complaint that people are being disrespectful. This isn't based on whether one should or shouldn't observe it, just the sheer illogicality of what happened.

(I think a lot of squaddies would be delighted if a "two minute shag" became an alternate mark of gratitude...)

(In typing that, I found that my predictive keyboard wants to turn "squaddies" into "squad dies" which is somehow both apposite and sad).

My DD is 13 yo. We live in a Garrison town. Two of her friends have lost their fathers in two years, and another friend's father is deployed right now. Yet the school are punishing her for observing the two minute silence. Simply because she was in an outdoor PE lesson at the time - the pupils in classroom based lessons observed the silence!

I usually forget them both, probably was silent on the Friday as was driving but had CD rather than radio on so not reminded. i wouldn't deliberately talk if others wanted to keep silent, the woman concerned is just silly. i wouldn't have said anything.

I also happened to be in my local Tesco during the two minutes' silence on Sunday. I was at the self service till and the bloody thing would not shut up because it thought there was an "unexpected item in the packing area". There wasn't, my four year old had leaned on it by accident when I called her over at the beginning of the silence. Then, when she moved away from it, auto-voice bellowed "Item removed from packing area. Please replace this item before continuing" every ten seconds for the rest of the two minutes.

I did a silent plea at the checkout girl (whose magic swipe card I know would have solved the problem instantly) once I realised that this was going to keep happening and there was nothing I could do about it, but she just did a sort of "don't worry" shrug at me. It was hideous, and such a shame, everyone was marking the silence so respectfully too - the whole place was completely still and quiet, except for my stupid bloody till.

OP is a classic exapmle of how it is easier to judge others behaviour than to reflect on your own. You could have pointed out her speaking during the silence was far more direspectful than staff sitting down. It would have changed nothing though. People's behaviour only changes when they want it to, not because someone points out their flaws.

emma

My sincere apologies but......HAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!

One reason why a two minute silence, while a fine sentiment and a nice idea does not perhaps tally with day to day life.
Fucking fucking till!
PMSL!

pictish - I was very close to giving said till a good shoeing afterwards, like Basil Fawlty and his car. I did get a lot of sympathetic looks - or at least I think they were sympathetic...