The Rude People of Buckinghamshire (From Bucks Free Press)

The Rude People of Buckinghamshire

12:37pm Thursday 27th October 2011

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I walk to and from work every day, only takes me 20 minutes each time and on my journey this morning I counted 10 separate cases of rudeness.

I am 22 years old and have always been taught the value and important of manners. I always say thank you when someone lets me pass them on the pavement or opens a door for me and I say no worries or your welcome when someone says thank you to me. However this gesture of politeness never seems to be returned.

Walking to work this morning I went down Marlow High Street to Sainsburys to collect my lunch. As I walked in a large family was coming out so I politely moved out of the way and gave them a smile, of course the parents avoided eye contact and did not say thank you.

I thought this was rude however carried on and didn’t think much else of it. I then continued my journey down institute road and a woman was coming towards me with a double buggy, so I stepped into the road to let her past, once again no thank you and completely avoided eye contact.

Now I was a little offended, I obviously moved out of the way to let her past but she’s too important to say thank you, she is one of the ones me and my friends call ‘The Marlow Mums’.

This happened a further 8 times on my way to work and it was a whole mix of people, not just bustling mums and families. How hard is it to say thank you to someone who was polite enough to move out of your way? It takes 2 seconds, doesn’t hurt you and also makes a difference.

This doesn’t just happen when I’m walking to work, this also happens in shops. I always hold open doors for the elderly and anyone else I can to be greeted by stone cold silence and no eye contact. I see this happening to other people as well, how can people be so content on being that rude? I find the elderly and the mums with buggies the worst though, it’s like they feel it’s their right to have doors opened for them and they don’t need to say thank you.

I’m sure me and my friends are not the only ones who feel this way, we were all brought up with immaculate manners and to respect other people.

It’s just a shame that our elders, the ones who complain about us being disrespectful, are the ones who are being rude. Maybe it’s not our generation who’s rude, to me it appears to be them.

Maybe I’m too polite and nice and taking it all a little too personally?

Only issue is it happens all the time. To the point where I shout ‘you’re welcome then’ to the people who don’t say thank you to then get a shocked look thrown at me and for them to scurry away, don’t think they expected for me to say anything.

Thing is though I have only found this in Buckinghamshire, other towns I have visited round the country are lovely and extremely polite. Maybe it’s just the rude people of Buckinghamshire?

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