Dammit! (Not you, Maggie)

It has been a very busy and trying week at work at my weekday job here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. And then with volunteer time added, I needed a break.

So, I decided that I would ‘treat’ myself and go have supper at a nice Chinese Buffet in west Biloxi, just north of the Crossroads Shopping Mall.

The place has a great and reasonably priced seafood buffet, specializing in shrimp prepared several different ways. I love shrimp, and so, I really enjoy going there on occasion when my budget will allow.

On the way over there driving on Hwy 90 along the beach, there was a very strong southeast wind, which resulted in pretty good-sized ‘breakers’ coming in off the gulf, and lots of white sand blowing across the highway.

After arriving at the restaurant, and getting a table, I went through the buffet, picking out my favorites and then sitting down to enjoy my dinner.

While eating here in Mississippi, being along 99% of the time for meals, I usually have a book or magazine of some kind, and read through perhaps part of a favorite Larry McMurtry book or one of the civil war magazines I read from time to time. Being a veteran civil war reenactor, I am hooked on reading the latest goings on about reenactments, civil war characters, and efforts by people to preserve historic civil war battlefields.

I couldn’t help but notice an interesting family of three at the table right in front of mine. The wife sat with her back to me, and had to be at least 30″ across and 500 lbs! Her husband, on the other side of the table, if he was naked and soaking wet, was thin as a rail and couldn’t have gone over 135 lbs! And he ate like he hadn’t eaten in two weeks! Their little boy, probably in the 9-10 year old range, tended towards the slender side. Such a contrast in spousal physiques.

As I was casually enjoying eating some very tasty morsels of seafood, and perusing a book on Grammar (of all things), a group of four women were seated at a table right next to mine.

Within two minutes, one of their cell phones rang, several times, rather loudly, to the tune of “The Entertainer.” The lady finally answered it and began a conversation, which lasted about 5 minutes. Towards the end of her conversation, one of the other women’s cell phones also rang, several times while she was digging it out of her purse. After about 4 minutes, she hung up.

About ten minutes later, the first women’s phone rang again, and rang several times before she thought it important enough to answer it. Dammit, I was beginning to hate that sound! Within 30 seconds, another of their phones rang, now two of them were talking away, not being very quiet about it, either.

Holy Hell! Would you believe, within a minute or so later, a third phone rang, and this time the owner grabbed it right away, acting pretty amused that three of them now were talking on their cells all at the same time!

Yah, right! With the three of them yakking happily away only a few feet from me, there was no way I could concentrate on my reading. And my appetite was fading fast into the evening.

And then, about a minute later, son-of-a-b–ch, the stupid fourth cell phone joined in the big party, ringing merrily away, as its owner unfolded it and started her conversation. Incredible!

From that point, things went downhill pretty quickly, as the volume of each talker edged upwards as each of them had trouble hearing their respective conversations, because their neighbors were talking louder trying to hear their callers. And louder. And louder the clamor became!!

At that point, all of us dining near to them were glaring at the foresome with visions of machine guns and tomahawks being put into action, and I found myself muttering, “Dammit! What the hell! You have got to be kidding me!” Talk about four, inconsiderate clucks at a hen party with tunnel vision!

Finally, one of my neighbors, a guy who was about 6′ 4″, built like a oil field roustabout, who probably weighed about 320lbs, got up, leaned over their table, and said, “Ladies, you are being extremely rude and you are interrupting my Anniversary dinner. If you want to talk on your cell phones, then OUTSIDE!! As he said outside in a very irritated manner, he thrust his thumb quickly up over his shoulder, indicating outside. He then quietly sat back down with his wife, who, believe it or not, looked slightly embarrassed at what her spouse had just done. The rest of us around there were silently thinking “ALL RIGHT, BIG GUY!!”

The four women, all stopped talking at once; no, ‘froze’ was more like it, when he addressed them, and within 10 seconds all had put down their phones. For a few seconds they all just looked at each other, saying nothing. Then, one of them turned around to the man and his wife, and apologized for their behavior. Two of their cell phones rang again while they were eating, and the two owners quickly turned them off, I guess. Then the other two must have finally caught on, and they fumbled with their phones to apparently turn them off, too.

If they had served booze there, I would have bought the guy a drink, hell, a bottle of champaign! As I was leaving, though, I stopped by his table and told him Thanks for saying something, and wished them a Happy Anniversary, then I left.

How in the hell did it became OK for people at a restaurant to be so incredibly rude and inconsiderate of others?

Dammit!