By: Darcie Thom

“Don’t stare, always say please and thank-you, and show your manners.” This was a daily instruction in my younger days. Having grown and learning, not only the embarrassment of the lack of manners, but also the respect value that manners hold, those words that were embedded all make sense to me now!

In a fairly recent attempt to have a family trip to the movie theatres in Regina, I had the privilege of an empty theatre and choosing just the right spot where all of our family members were able to see the screen clearly and without distraction. That didn’t last long, as a matter of fact a man over 6′4″ (and that may be a slight exaggeration), decided to seat himself in front of my youngest child. Not wanting to be rude or abrupt, I cleared my throat and quite loudly asked my boy “can you see the big T.V?” He, the accused suspect, looked back and shot a dirty look at us. No sorry or any other kind of response. Just a dirty look. Just down the row from us two highly chatty girls (probably late teens) kindly, slight SARCASM, put their feet, up on the seats, right next to the heads of the people seating directly in front of them. Let’s be honest here, most people don’t appreciate that kind of behaviour, especially from a young adult.

As a person who paid for the tickets, made the time to find the perfect spot out of the way of others, instructed my children to behave and stay quiet during the movie, was I out of line to expect some sort of decency from a man clearly over the age of 20?

A separate occasion, led a friend to believe that manners have been thrown out the window. In her situation, instead of someone lending her a hand, many simply stood there, watching her struggle with a child in hand, a box of diapers and two bags of groceries (one with a ripped handle and groceries spewing out onto the ground). Sadly, she was alone and without help. Instead of people only viewing the situation, why couldn’t this have been a pay-it-forward moment?

The concept of pay-it-forward is a great idea with the potential to help people understand and respect others. At least I think it is…….

The words please and thank-you are rarely used anymore, at least in most cases, the words “I WANT!” are often substituted for those ‘old-fashioned’ magic words.

As a child, I was always looking at people, visualizing them as if they were in a situated portrait. My elders often thought I was staring and that usually seemed to get me in a lot of trouble! To this day, when I look at people, I still see them in a portrait kind of way, always thinking of how I would crop the photo, the lighting, the texture and the lead-in highlight of the picture. But I have often been accused of staring, and I have grown accustomed to apologize to them for the unintended and ill-mannered behaviour.

So…. Excuse me for being blunt, please accept my apologies for any ill-mannered behaviour and/or remarks and thank-you just cause!