I spent the day at the local air show today (Moffett Air Expo 2003) and ran into some very rude folks. Not just any folks, mind you, but extremely pushy people.
First they put their kids down in front of the people next to me. This is understandable, they are short and need to be close to see the planes. Next, one of the wives moves in, spreading the kids out into two different parties areas. Next, the fathers move in, push all those new arrivals aside, and try to carve out a large area from about 3 parties. I am now one of the parties.
What amazed me is the complete lack of tact or reason these folks had. I refuse to play the race card here, but I have to say if these were American’s they would have at least asked before butting in. Instead, they pushed in, two at a time, until they took up far more room than they started with. Then they proceeded to tell everyone around them how “they were doing it for the kids” but the kids were not remotely interested in the air show. By about mid-way through the show the kids had split, the daddy’s had PO’d everyone around them, and the mom’s were tired of holding down the fort, as it were.
In the end, they all left and many happy folks got their personal space back. Why people do things like this are beyond me. The oldest kid couldn’t have been more than 10, and with an attention span of a typical TV commercial. How these people thought the kids would enjoy sitting in the hot sun, with noisy planes, craning necks upward for 6+ hours is a mystery.
I enjoyed the planes, though. 🙂