Respec', innit?

It's not really an indicator of my increasing anno domini, although I suppose that since the anno are mine thay should not be described as domini.  But I expect you know what I mean.  I'm getting old.  Correction: I have got old.  I know that because I can no longer run up the stairs two at a time and I no longer balance on one leg while I put a sock on the other foot.  I sit down to do that now, so I must be getting old.  But then, I am but a few days shy of my 71st birthday so I should expect not to be able to do all the things I used to.  Oh heck, I'm going off target again!

We've all done it, I'm sure.  Sometime after somebody has said something to us we have suddenly thought of the most apt rejoinder.  Of course, it is by then far too late, usually by several hours in my case.  But what I am talking about here takes the process a little further on.  I had to see one of the nurses at our surgery the other day for a blood test and it was not until several hours later that I realised she had, throughout the short session, always referred to me as Mr Slater.

"Hey," I thought (and remember, this was several hours later), "she called me Mr Slater."  Granted, she is young enough to be my daughter, but having read not so very long ago of all the elderly people who felt demeaned and disrespected by nurses calling them by their Christian names when in hospital, it came as something of a surprise.

(Oops! I should, I suppose, have written "forenames" or "given names" rather than Christian names now we are living in a multi-cultural society.)

Later that same day - in fact, it was before I had that enlightening thought - I had occasion to call at the pharmacy in our local supermarket to collect a prescription for the Old Bat.  (She was queuing to buy postage stamps at the customer service desk: I didn't even know they sold postage stamps.)  The young lady at the pharmacy - young enough to be my granddaughter - greeted me with the words, "Hello, Brian".  I only know her as a result of calling at the pharmacy quite a lot over the last couple of years.  Honest, guv!

I really cannot see a problem - or, necessarily, disrespect - in calling somebody older than oneself by their Christian name.  I well remember an incoming manager at the branch of the bank I worked at asking all the staff to call him by his Christian name.  That they did so showed no disrespect.  Indeed, he was probably more respected than many other mangers who wanted to be addressed as "sir" or "Mr Mainwaring".

As usual, my old granny had the right idea.  She always said she didn't mind what people called her as long as it wasn't late for her dinner.  It's not what people say that shows lack of respect, but how they say it.

~~~~~

I don't have many new pictures at the moment so here is one taken several years ago.  This shows Patcham mill caught in a moment when the late afternoon sun was shining on it on a dismal day.  The original was a 35mm slide which I copied - regrettably without cleaning it of dust!