To have laid in to this old man?

[knobheadex]

Something happened to me yesterday and I've been stewing on it ever since.

It's 3pm and I'm on the way to pick up the kids from school. I nip in the the local garage because I'm slightly early and need to pick up a few things anyway.

It's pretty busy so I wait my turn in the queue. When I get to the front I ask the friendly young guy for some low nicotine e-liquid. As part of the chat I mention how I usually buy Elf Bars but I'm trying to quit vaping now. Suddenly I'm aware of someone behind me shouting something, so I spun round to see what's going on. There's a tall, rotund white haired man standing at the back of the queue booming 'They'll all kill your anyway, love!'

I reply that I'm aware it's not healthy and that's why I'm trying to quit before turning back to pay for my stuff and get the hell out of there. But he's still shouting 'I don't drink and I've never smoked! You know why??! Because I'm the boss of this!' And he proceeds to tap the side of his head. 'I can do anything I put my mind to!'

I say 'thank you very much for the unsolicited advice random man' and carry on with the transaction. But he won't shut up. He's really belittling me now and suggesting that I am weak willed and pathetic for being addicted to something. I'm done paying now and turn to leave and he's yelling at me that his wife has emphysema because she smoked 40 a day. I say loudly 'Now I feel doubly sorry for your wife' and march towards the door.

He's still going, although I'm not sure exactly what he's shouting about now but I'm raging by this point. Who does he think he is? Would he be saying all of this to a man buying cigarettes? So I get to the door and then shout back at him 'Can do anything apparently, but can't mind your own fucking business or put down the pies long enough to drop a few inches off that waistband of yours'.

A few people in the queue gasped and I left feeling like I'd gone too far. Did I? Or did he deserve it, just a little bit?

She certainly doesn't speak for this woman with her ageism, body shaming etc (I see upthread she's thrown some bile at him being "middle class" as well)

Years ago I was driving, about to pull out of my neighborhood, waiting on a truck to pass by, it was going pretty fast and didn’t have a turn signal on so I assumed it was going straight and not turning in to my neighborhood. So as it was passing me, I began to pull out, at the same time, the driver suddenly decided (looked like to me) to turn into my neighborhood at the last second.

Well, I stopped (hadn’t yet gotten onto the main road, so still on my street) and they stopped, a man was driving and a woman was in the passenger seat, his girlfriend or wife. She was livid. She began screaming and shouting, she jumped out of the truck and was cursing me at the top of her lungs.

I apologized and said I’m sorry, because I felt like I may have started pulling out too soon and because I didn’t want to get this woman more riled up. Well, my apologies did not satisfy her. She co tinged to scream, I’ve never seen anything like. Meanwhile, the driver looked embarrassed and sheepish and asked me if I was ok. She then realized how she looked and after screaming a bit more, she got back into the truck. I was so mortified as that was my neighborhood.

I felt superior to her though because she acted so immature and classless but then I thought, I’ve acted stupid plenty of times, not screaming in public but lots of other ways losing my composure that is just as embarrassing, including in front of other people, so a lesson was learned that day, probably by both of us. It really made me think about how to act, how to carry myself, how to react. Because I realized I was really just lucky that time not being the one who was acting foolish. Behaving like a lady, or a gentleman, never goes amiss!

Wind 'em up and watch 'em go...

The only thing that would annoy me is that I'd never be quick witted enough myself to think of that on the spot. Way to go, OP!

Did you actually say 'random man'?

I find it so cringy when people say this

Of course she did!!! 😂😂😂

Brilliant. Well done OP
👏👏👏👏👏
(really don’t understand all those that think it’s best to ignore etc, why are we supposed to just take this behaviour).

Well done you

Good on ya 👍

It doesn't take a lot to swear at anyone these days. You're not unusual in that regard OP

I agree with this

I always took the 'higher ground'. Never seemed to stop rude men in their tracks from making comments though!

Good for you OP.

If she hadn't mentioned the old man was old, how could all the posters witter on about it clearly being dementia related instead of him just being a cunt?

He sounds like he has dementia starting rather than just being an arsehole. You sound a bit up yourself.

YANBU. He was rude and deserved what he got. Why should he be able to say what he wants? Can't believe people are actually saying you are in the wrong! Why should you ignore it? He's likely not got dementia either just a case of mansplaining.

The post doesn't sound genuine to me either. It's far from trolling though so why would anyone report.

Sounds like one of those "I wish I had retorted with" moments. It's good you didn't OP. No one looks clever arguing with idiots.

YANBU.

He sounds like a cunt.

I think what you said was perfect

Yes, and if indeed he was just looking for a verbal ruck, the OP more than delivered.

Amazing response. I’d have done the same and wanted to punch him too!

And him going on and on was not bullying?
Good for you OP.

Bloody brilliant OP.
I would have laughed if I had been there.

Pretty shit response if you ask me.

not particularly funny or witty.

get the impression it was posted purely to get a load of applause.

the ‘random man’ comment is 🙄

Some of you here claim to get a lot of unsolicited advice and rude comments from random old men.
Do you think you look.. Common? Like there's a chance for a bit of a fight and a scene?

Thinking of the past few months, I've had a homeless man muttering "gorgeous" upon the sight of my divine sculpted features, a random not old man on the street asking if I'd like to share his KFC meal and a man with Tourettes who called me a " Fucking little people and Skipping cunt" (he's right).

No unsolicited advice, no bullies and zero rude old farts that would need putting in their place.
I'll try a chav bun and a face tattoo to get noticed.

I bet the others in the queue were silently cheering you on OP.
An old bloke prodded me in the back with his walking stick when I was in front of him in a supermarket queue. The shopping basket was heavy so I put it on the floor and was pushing it along with my foot as the queue moved up.
I can’t have been quick enough for him for he yelled at me.. MOVE NOW!
and then prodded me sharply in the back with his stick. Needless to say I took my sweet time moving up the queue after that.

Why do people say shit like this?

Some people are just mouthy gobshites. And sometimes being a mouthy gobshite back is good for the self esteem.