The Court Jester

Last weekend, I was at Tim Hortons, grabbing myself and Heather a coffee for the three hour drive home after spending the weekend at the cottage.  This particular Tim Hortons is always busy when we visit and it’s not uncommon to wait 15-20 minutes for a cup of coffee, which means a lot of people watching.

As I stood in line, a middle-aged woman came out of the bathroom and joined her husband and son at the table.  Shortly after sitting down, I watched her take the gum she had been chewing and casually stick it under the table.

I stood there a little confused, angry and a bit disgusted by her bahaviour, especially in front of their impressionable pre-teen son.

Some thoughts immediately sprang to mind:

• The woman just left the washroom, why didn’t she throw her gum out while she was in there?
• They had napkins on the table, why didn’t she put her gum in a napkin?
• She didn’t make an effort to hide her behaviour or seem to mind that other people could have seen her.
• Am I overreacting?  Does everybody put their used gum under their seats or tables?  Why does this bother me so much?

To me, few things are worse than when I’m at a restaurant and I accidentally put my hands under a table and cop a feel the tiny hardened bumps of other peoples’ chewing gum.

I’m writing this entry, kicking myself for not asking these questions of the woman when I had the chance.  But I guess my own rules of etiquette (and the fact that I would have lost my place in line), precluded me from further investigation.

As I get older though, my tolerance for this kind of behavior lowers and as a result, there will likely be some confrontations.  The upside is that my blog posts will probably have more exciting conclusions!

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