Ah, well, keep on drivin' and other stories

[Alan H]

After going by the big builders supply and garden supply store to pick up two 16 pound cobblestones for our fledgling X-Marks Bay Area Heavies group.....and getting a very warm reception from the guys, including the hispanic guys....at the store, I went by BevMo. See, I'm probably going to be in charge of purchasing the whiskey for our Burns Supper and I needed to do some market research, see?

Righto..... so I march into BevMo and go to check out the single malts. "No, Alan you can NOT purchase that bottle of MacCallum 18 year. *sigh*" I was good, thought the Aberlourd 10 year for $32 was mighty tempting.

ANY-way, I noticed a guy giving me some funny looks from the end of the aisle, but I didn't think twice about it.

After a while I left the store and walked across the parking lot. I got in the truck, pulled out, and went around the corner. I noticed two of the four Hispanic guys in the car ahead of me turning around in their car to stare at me. Hmmm, that'td kind of odd... When we get out on the main street, we all go about 1/3rd of a block and stop at the light, and there's this guy absolutely going Ape-shiggles on the sidewalk. I mean he's yelling and gesticulating something amazing, and he's not looking friendly. I look around...nobody else here to yell at, so I look at him. Yup, he's yelling at me.

Now understand, this isn't just "yelling", I mean he's practically jumping up and down. He's waving his arms, he's starting to get red in the face. Finally I roll down the passenger side window and he screams at me...

His choice of words centered about his feelings concerning a type of man whose sexual orientation differs from his own. There, was that a polite enough way to say it?

Honestly, I was tempted to get out and confront the sucker. I don't usually get aggressive like that, but this was over the top. Tim C will confirm that I'm pretty good at turning the other cheek to the jerks. However, I was in the center lane, three lanes away from the guy, so I just smiled at him and drove on. One of these days someone is gonna go off on me about the kilt and my sexual orientation, though, and someone is gonna get hurt.

And in other news.............................................. ..........................

In preparation for our X-Marks Bay Area Heavies I went to check out the throwing field at the High School I was subbing at on Friday. As I was coming back from the field, walking along the track, one of a little gang of hispanic boys that were by the gym hollered at me.. "Are you gay?"

Knowing that it was about the kilt and knowing that I'd be paying them a little visit in about three minutes, I opted to answer like this....

"Are you Stupid?"...at the top of my lungs so that nobody could miss it. Half of the little clot of guys laughed.

After I climbed out of the stadium I walked straight over to where they were. I walked right into the center of the kids and said. "OK, so now...who has a problem with Me or My kilt?"

Nobody said anything.

Now, I know full well that I'm not going to educate them on how unutterably stupid and ignorant and cruel it is to use "gay" as an invective. I mean, they're not going to hear it if I preach to them. So instead of that I said, and pardon the language but this IS what I said to them....

"I see. So you p**sies will shout at someone from across campus when it's safe, but when that same guy is right here in your face, you won't stand up to him, will you? Next time you want to give me s**t, do it to my face."

Whereupon one kid...BEHIND me... made a comment about me being GAY.. I turned around and of course nobody would say who it was. So I sat down at the table that was right there, shoved a couple of books off to the side and put my arm up to arm-wrestle..... "OK, so who here is enough of a MAN to take on the f**gott in the SKIRT?" Nobody moved. I gave them a nice long thirty-forty seconds to respond.....nothing.

So I told 'em..."next time you think you're a big hardass and you can yell abuse at someone because you're so tough, remember that there's ALWAYS somebody out there that's a bigger badass than you are. You won't get far, calling people names and disrespecting them because they look different from you...

But if you open your brain up and treat people with respect and listen to where they're coming from, you might learn something worthwhile."...and then I headed off to class.

It'll be interesting to see what happens if I have any of those kids in class this week.

[Alan H]

Interesting....

Early last week, not three blocks from where this guy was screaming at me, I had a TOTALLY different interaction.

I was driving home from visiting the District office and I noticed that cars were piled up in the far right hand lane. When I stopped at the light, I noticed an 80's vintage sedan with two elderly ladies at the front of the line, in that lane. When the light changed they didn't move...obviously they couldn't get their car started.

So I drove to the next block, turned off, parked and got out of the car. I walked back to where they were....people were honking and shouting and trying to get by. The woman who was driving was on her cell phone....was calling her husband for help. She was clearly very upset.

I offered to help, told them that I'd push their car around the corner and off the main street and stick around until the towtruck came. It took a little while...I mean the poor woman was pretty flustered. When she took the car out of gear, she'd jam on the emergency brake. She didn't remember that you had to have the ignition key turned part-way to free up the steering wheel. Well, we finally got her straightened out, and I started pushing.

The four kids...high school age kids standing on the street corner....I will leave their cultural background unreported....did nothing. When I gestured to them to help me, they stared and then laughed. So I pushed this car by myself around the corner, across the street and into a parking lot.

While I was doing this, THREE...count 'em THREE cars honked and women shouted out their windows how much they liked my kilt.

Twenty minutes later the AAA tow truck showed up. The driver thanked me for helping the ladies, and both of them thanked me, too. It was no big deal, ya know? They were in trouble and it was no big deal to take a few minutes to help out.

But three-four blocks where this guy went off on me for being the "gay" in a skirt today, I had three cars honk and shout out "I like your kilt" messages while I was pushing that car.

Go figure.

[Bob C]

I doubt the punks learned anything, Alan, but it's not due to any lack of effort on your part.

Good on ya, mate.

[Kid Cossack]

It ain't about what they did, bro, it's about what you did.

Now that sounds trite and silly---but I've believed in sillier things in my time, and still do.

[MacTavishOfJapan]

There are some truely disgustingly ignorant people in the world. I sometimes think we are all doomed.

Good on you for trying with the stupid kids Alan and even more so for being a gent and helping the ladies, perhaps there is hope!

[Alan H]

The way I see it...what THEY think is THEIR business and if THEY want to be idiots, that's their right and privilege. Go ahead and prove that you're an idiot.

*I*....... will do what *I* think is right, and if *I* want to wear a kilt....

or help two elderly women in a car that won't start...of if *I* want to substitute teach in a school, if *I* want to help kids learn some math or some English or some Western Civ...and if *I* have to toss a couple of kids who've checkedd out of school OUT of my classroom so that the rest can learn something, then

*I*

will be a Man and do it. And if the indeterminate "they"..whoever "they " is, has a problem with that, then "they" can take it up with me TO MY FACE.

End of Rant.

[Tattoo Bradley]

They guy hopping up and down and getting red-faced about you, the kilt, and your sexual orientation is BEYOND me. :-S What year is this???? :confused: You weren't driving Marty McFly's delorian this weekend were you???? :confused: I must agree with MacTavish... I sometimes think we're all doomed too. I made another post about it. But, I had someone with low testicular fortitude holler "I like your skirt" and laugh as I turned to see his tail lights. That's actually the first "skirt" comment I've received that wasn't from a teasing relative or buddy. It had me plenty steamed I must admit. I was able to laugh about it, but it's forced me to better prepare myself for the inevitable "next time."

[Panache]

Anyone who uses "Gay" as a derrogatory term isn't worth the effort.

Much like trying to teach a horse to talk, it wastes your time and annoys the horse.

Still, my hat off to you for not tolerating such idiocy and trying (albeit in a Quixotic way) to try to engage these poor fellows to think.

And of course, good on you for being a gentleman and assisting the ladies in need of help.

Cheers

[Big Dave]

Stupid people will always be stupid, because they're too stupid to know any better .

[walkerk]

Hey Alan,

You certainly have some interesting experiences. I strikes me that some of the reactions are ingrained in the language. 'La falda escocesa' - feminine pronoun. Therefore, by extrapolation, in their juvenile minds...

No such negative reactions for me (yet) further up The Peninsula where there are lots of Asians and (especially) Samoans. At a "Trader Joe's" (known for its South Seas decor) a couple of weekends ago the young checkout clerk inquired if there were some "special event" when she saw me kilted. I told her there wasn't and then asked her when the stock boys would be properly attired in lava-lavas. Afraid my question went right over her head.

Oh, have you noticed that BevMo has greatly expanded their whisky selection lately? Everything over $40 is now locked behind glass. Not that I've had to ask to have the cabinet unlocked.