Quote:
--Respect for psychological research
Respect for quacks that allow the obnoxious little bastards that rule the malls?
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amen.
I was working one night and it was very busy and hectic. At the time there were 2 business managers, and we both had deals on our desks. The (at that time) senior business mgr was Rich. Rich was very, shall we say, ....fastidious. He looked like a banker, too. In fact, the salesmen all called him "Dreisdale" after the banker on the Beverly Hillbilies. Suspenders and all. All he needed was a monacle, and he'd look just like the monopoly guy. This doesn;t make a bit of difference to the story, by the way, just so you know he's pretty straight, and sober.
So, Rich has a customer in his office. A lady. And they're talking, and I can hear them through my wall, as our offices were adjacent. At the same time there are three kids creating a ruccus in the lounge area. And their father is losing his grip. The girl (7yrs old?) is going,"~~anoyyyyyyyyying! anoyyyyyyyying!, anoyyyyyyyying!" over and over to make her brothers go nuts. and everyone elses that can hear her. I was appreciating the irony, but dad didn't see the humor. So he's yelling at them and telling them that if they get out of their chairs again, he's going to break their arms or some other bullshit threat that only made you go," gee, i bet this guy abuses his kids!" in your head. It was uncomfortable.
At this point I had to go into Rich's office to get a new license plate out for my customer. As I go in, Rich and his customer look up at me and pause their conversation, and I smile at the lady and tell rich, " Call the cops, this guy's out of control." ~jokingly
And the lady says, " sounds like their father is having a hard time with them", or something noncommital like that...sounded like small talk to me....and I say, " yeah, but at this point it's too late to yell at your kids. you have to have laid down the law at home, or you can;t expect them to be cooperative in PUBLIC." Like I knew what the fuck I was talking about ( this is before I was a dad).
So guess who walks into the office and says," Honey, blah blah blah whatever, yadda yadda yadda. ( doesn;t matter, and i can;t remember) ?
yeah, the psycho father. I looked at Rich, who knew who the guy was, and had been staring at me with his mouth open about 3/4 of an inch, holding his breath the whole time I was talking to the lady ( I had my back to Rich). He had turned a nice deep strawberry red, too, which was highlighted by his massive balding forehead with it's little shock of yellow hair. he looked like a lit candle. The moment took about 3 days to go by as I calmly left the room without looking at either of the customers, and dove into my office pulling the door shut behind me.
I still think it was too late for the guy to be yelling at his kids.
man, i feel embarrassed again just in re-telling that.