I went to my band’s rehearsal this afternoon. I was at the front door of TBJ’s building, patiently waiting for him to get out of the shower and open to me, when a couple of old ladies arrived, chatting and looking for their keys in their bags. I smiled politely and stepped aside to let them enter. This is when they paid attention to my skates…
Now, instead of the expected “Thank you, dear” I was treated to “Are you the one who jumps in the staircase?” – Beg your pardon? “You are the one making that awful noise in the staircase, aren’t you?” I answered, half appalled and half perplexed, that I was respectful enough to be careful when I go up or down the stairs, although I conveyed that skates make a bit more noise than shoes but that it was far from being the deafening noise that they were describing, and that no I wasn’t the one as I wasn't that noisy.
The accusation was so violent that I couldn’t surrender because it was unfair. I went up the stairs behind them and they even added that I was “going to damage the stairs”, which really pissed me off this time, and I answered that my skates would not damage the stairs more than her shoes, “Ma’am!!”
The AkouRehearsal finished, I went back home. Guess who I met going down the stairs? “You should be careful” – I opened my mouth to say that it was kind but that they didn’t have to worry for me, and then I realized that I was really stupid to think that old selfish ladies could actually care about me. “Oh and there’s lots of noise at night too!” they added accusingly.
Okay, so now I’m responsible for every single noise
in their bloody building.
How come I can make noise at night when I’m only here from 2 to 7, during 4 days once a month? She didn’t even pay attention to my answer and she wished me a “good evening”. Did she really think that, because I'm a skater, I am dumb enough not to detect the sarcasm?
They must be very bored to care about such details and amplify them that much.
Whatever.
This is not the first time...
...and it happens all the time!
In my own residence I have to take off my skates, so I go up to the 4th floor by sock: I could “damage the fitted carpet”, y’know. Worse: It was a neighbor of mine, a girl in her 20s, who told on me to the caretaker! Sometimes I really feel like calling S.O.S. Racisme...
A couple of months ago I got told off by an old woman while I was waiting for the traffic light to turn to green. She seemed to have associated the notion <skates> to those of <irresponsible> and <vandal>. Like the others, she just put a label on me because I was on skates. The apex was when she told me that I would “end up in a wheelchair” and that it would “serve me right”.
Why so much hate?
I skated back home, and I wrote down all these things I would have died to tell her… They ended up in a rap-song about old women who fuss with you at the traffic light just because you got your skates on. I called it “Shit talker”. Haha!
I'm very respectful. However, when you're treated that way it's hard not to answer back. I'm keeping it all to myself, but I understand more and more why old people think that young people are insolent and rude. They are kind of pushed to be so, sometimes...
Note: I’m just realizing I’ve never been annoyed that way by (old) men… No idea of what conclusion to draw from it.
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