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Some time ago my wife had to have back surgery, an outpatient procedure taking about 3 hours all total. I sat in a large waiting area during that time. It was totally different from the small waiting areas for the Coronary or ICU wings, where most are somber, quiet, and for the most part courteous people.

This area held about 110 people at full capacity. Today there were maybe 50. I sat there and thought about how society had slipped into the “me” generation. Even those that appeared to be in their 50s. One man sitting across from me looked like one of the characters out of an Andy Griffith episode, the people that lived up in the mountains. He had a nearly 6 foot long staff with a leather wrap near the top. He had a full fluffy Santa Claus beard and was wearing overalls, with no T-Shirt. It was hard to say if it was a fashion statement, or just he was really that simple-minded to not realize how tacky it was. However, in today’s world how can we really define tacky. Listening to him speak with the lady he was with, who was dressed in jeans and what we call the “Wife Beater” tank top, that thin stretchy t-shirt material southern redneck men usually wear, Maybe he or both were out on a pass from an institution.

Looking around there is a woman ambling through the waiting area of robust size, wearing a thin pullover stretch T-shirt and spandex. It actually looked more like the tights you exercise in. It appeared they were rated for a size 10, maybe 140 lbs max, these were now supporting what appeared to be a size 20XXL on a 5’7? Frame, weighing about 270lbs. As she made her way across the room away from our area, it looked as if she was smuggling two pit-bulls out of a Pet Store, and they were fighting to get out of the rear of the conveyance. It is about 20 seconds of visual memory I’d rather not have witnessed.

The noise level from people talking loudly on their phone, or playing games with the volume turned up so they could hear it over the people talking, was really just over the top as far as manners.

There is a comedian, and the name escapes me at the moment, like many other things, that once said. “This here’s America! You can do anything you want, long as it doesn’t hurt anybody!”

Comments welcome,