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10:43 a.m. - 2005-01-29 Hello Young LadyI have noticed something lately that really bothers me and I wonder if other people are experiencing this or if I look like an almost 50 year old kid. Every day....someone calls me "Young Lady". This doesn't cause me to wonder so much when I am on the phone as people really don't know what one looks like when they are talking on the phone. However, this is happening to me on a daily basis...or even as much as a thrice daily basis, by people who see me in person. At work last Thursday, I actually outlasted the bosses, intently working at 6:15PM. My boss came up to the front of the office and said "Are you almost finished there young lady?" Now, I am about 6 months older than this guy and he knows it. Earlier that day, we had 4 salesmen whom I had never met before, come in for an awards ceremony. As they filtered in, two out of the four, all of whom are my juniors by at least a generation said, "nice to meet you young lady." This isn't a new pheonomenon. It has been happening for quite a while. At my former job, many of our customers who knew me only from the telephone called me "young lady" and Chander used to call me that also. I always thought that from a boss...it was somewhat of a demeaning reference designed to let you know that he was the BIG BOSS and that you were the LITTLE LADY. When someone refers to me as "young lady" it makes me feel like a little girl. I realize that it is probably an attempt to flatter me, but it demeans me. Really....I am not a young lady. I know it and anyone who looks at me knows it.....when somone calls me young lady, I read it as referenceing to someone who is too young to know much of anything and therefore has the rank of a peon......it is a phony gesture that does not make me smile. Last night I stopped at a gas station. It was cold and windy and I was trying to get the pump to quickly approve my credit card and get the gas pumping into the tank so I could go back in the warm car, when I heard a voice at the pump next to me offer someone a free copy of the Daily Herald. The man declined, and the salesman came around to my side of the pump. I stood face to face with a pimple faced boy of about 22 years old. "Can I offer you a free copy of the Daily Herald today YOUNG LADY?" How old will I have to be before people stop calling me young lady. I am almost 49 years old and last time I looked in the mirror, I didn't look like a spring chicken. (What is a spring chicken anyway?) One more observation made yesterday. By Friday evening, I have not one functioning brain cell left. Friday has now been designated as Movie Nite. I stopped at Blockbuster to get "The Forgotten", which by the way is a really good movie. As I entered the store, a jolly looking young man shouted out to me with a big smile on his face. "Welcome to Blockbuster and the End Of Late Fees, Can I Help You Find Something." If he would have added "young lady" I think I would have slapped him. I picked out my movie and was checked out by an equally "happy" young man. "Is there anything else I can do for you?" he said cheerily. Next to him was a pretty perky young girl with short, carrot red hair and a face full of freckles. She chirped happily to the customer she was waiting on about how good the movie was the customer had chosen. As I left Blockbuster, mood elevated by all the perky, happy, helpful young people, I wondered; "Did Blockbuster slip all these kids a drug?......Are they some sort of Stepford Children?" Do they pay these kids $20.00 an hour to shrug off the normal teenage sulliness or is there hope for our future? I was equally impressed that none of these perky young people felt the need to "flatter" me by calling me "young lady." P. I. Yarnsmith
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