My Grandad is a lovely bloke. I see many of my traits in him, he is loud and opinionated, and me and him are capable of having some good discussions, and along the way he teaches me alot, and that is important. At the moment his philosophy on life is, he is at an age where he can say what he wants, without worrying about offending people....and well he does. Now to an extent I agree with this. You should be open and honest about what you think, and generally in the bigger picture people will respect you for it. You can go to far though. You can sometimes just be damn right rude, and I think at times he is walking a fine line, and completely relying on the respect he expects to recieve as an older member of the community. I don't think this is fair.

My Pops, is in his late 70's. He is extremely active for his age, and likes to keep busy. He helps out sometimes at the local old peoples home. Wheeling people about, and keeping them company, and just general little jobs. He really enjoys it. Now I am guilty of not spending as much time with my Grand Folks as I should, so I made an effort to go and see him, and he just happened to be going off to help out for a few hours. So guess who was persuaded to go along? Yep! That would be me. I didn't really mind, I can pretty much get on with people of any age, and it would be a chance to spend sometime with him. So off we went. For what I thought would be a nice relaxing day with some nice old folks. How wrong was I.

It started off pretty well. For the first hour or so they lulled me into a false sense of security, and I didn't realise that I was about to be eaten alive by the kindly pensioners. The first bit of trouble was with an old lady, who took a disliking to what I was wearing. It was a hot day, and I was wearing a skirt, and a t-shirt type top that looked like it was ripped in places. The skirt was a decent length, and the top covered everything that needed to be covered. I was not dressed inappropriately. She informed me that this was the problem with girls of my age today, we flaunt everything. No such thing as ladies anymore. Tut. Tut. Now usually I would fight my corner, and make a point, but she was a nice old lady, so I let it go.

I then moved on to another old lady, who spent about half an hour telling me how the 'youth' were so rude and horrible these days. Would this be the same youth that is listening to you bitch and moan for half an hour lady? She told me how we never took any consideration for old people, how she had grandkids that never visit her ( I can't say I blame them) and how nowadays we were just dragged up rather than brought up properly. This annoyed me a little. I informed her that my parents had brought me up properly. At this point she looked me up and down, and said, "I'm sure they did, dear". By then I was sick of the evil old ladies, so I went to find my Pops, for some safety.

It turns out the men are even worse. I walked into a room where about five old men were sat around just chatting. My Pops was one of them. I walked over to him and put a hand on his back to let him know I was there, and he carried on talking. Then one of the men made a comment about me....it went along the lines of " How did you manage to get a young girl like that, we could all do with one of them" I expect comments like that from puberty ridden, spotty faced teenage boys, not from men who are old enough to know better. Several other jokes and comments followed, and at this point I was just wondering if I was simply taking things a little to personally, from these kindly old folks.

Then it happened. Just as we were leaving. Someone noticed I had a carrier bag with me, and asked me what was in it. I told them that it was a new top I had just brought from town. This little old lady smiled at me sweetly, and asked to see it. So I pulled out my new prized possession, and showed her. Her smile got a little bigger, and she told me it was lovely......but.....she thought I was a little fat for a top like that. Diet Dear. Curves are not attractive. Grrrrrr!

I can make allowances for the older generation, and I believe they deserve respect. I would hate to think of someone not showing my Grandparents respect. However, in order to recieve respect you have to give it out, and rudeness is not nice, no matter how old you are.