SHE SAYS...

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33106, 22 December 1972, Page 14

SHE SAYS...

If there’s one conclusion I’ve come to after fighting my way through the usual Christmas traffic in the usual Christmas rush, it’s that if the old saw about courtesy being contagious is true, then it is every bit as true that discourtesy is just as catching. My late-December shopping has included some furnishings as well as the usual Christmas goodies, and while I can’t speak too

highly of the patience, courtesy and helpfulness I encountered in a very few shops, the rude, discourteous, unhelpful, uninformed, bone - headed “couldn’t care less” attitude in many others nearly reduced me to speechless fury at times. If ever I was in a mood to walk blindly out on the road in front of an oncoming bus, or roar off in the car and through a red light —or any of the other things one is likely to do when furious and driving—it was after coming opt of these stores.

But I told myself that there were a lot of other harassed Christmas shoppers around, and everyone else was complaining about the weather too, and there were probably just as many rude customers as rude shop-assistants, and chewed down on the anger. I suspect that most women are likely to do the same when this sort of combination of situations crops up. But after driving through that Christmas traffic, I’m sure that men are just the opposite, and their driving in traffic often shows it.

Never mind, with most of us heading to the suburban shopping centres now that the council has put up the parking charges, driving through town won’t be much of a problem to those who still bother in 1973.