Mean Seniors

February 8, 2010

A group of older women recently caught my attention in a restaurant.

Since it’s such a gift to see old friends enjoy each other, I placed my order and waited happily to hear the ladies cackle together.

Boy was I wrong about the scenario I expected to see.

Those chicks were nowhere close to being loving little ladies.

As they snarled about the restaurant temperature, the price of the chicken salad and an assortment of other issues, I saw quickly that they were grumpy, gossipy witches.

They also treated their female server like gum on a shoe. They barked orders at her. They spoke sarcastically.

Wow.

It was sad. It was appalling. It made me feel sick, actually.

Those haughty lady devils had their noses in the air like royalty. They obviously have spent many years feeling entitled.

Their brat behavior did not look like a horrible day that got out of hand.

Nope, they looked like they all made a habit of being hateful.

At first, I tried to envision my grandma in a situation like that. But I couldn’t.

Even on her worst day, my grandma would never have acted like that group of nasties.

She would have smiled like an angel and sweetly patted the hand of the flustered server.

I know many, many grandmas who would have acted exactly like my grandma.

So what was wrong with the dragon ladies? What makes a group of older women behave in such an ugly way?

A flashback of the high school cafeteria instantly filled my brain. I watched the mean talk behind perfectly manicured hands. Listened to the put-downs.

I blinked, realizing the brat old ladies were a much older gaggle of mean girls, just like the ones I knew in high school.

They likely bullied their way through middle age, too.

And now here they were, roller derby queens with blue hair.

Knots gathered in my stomach. Maybe from the realization that some mean people never outgrow their mean behavior.

Or maybe it was the vision of mean girls- fifty years later- still being mean girls.