Saturday, September 20, 2008

It Doesn't Take Much..................

...............to put a smile on my face.

I was nearing the end of my 5 mile walk today when someone coming the other way, on the other side of the road, caught my eye.  I was wearing my usual t-shirt, scruffy jeans and a baseball cap to save my head from the blistering sun.  

No ?  Ok to retain the heat then.  But it was a lovely sunny day at least.

This other person cut quite a dash.  Even for Leeds 17.  Facially he was a bit like a young Colonel Sanders with a very well trimmed white goatee beard.  He was wearing an immaculate cream suit and a similar coloured panama hat.  

As we passed each other, he looked across at me.  I was so taken with his appearance I found myself touching the peak of my baseball cap and he smiled and did the same with his much more classy hat.  We never broke stride and the moment was over.

I had a smile on my face for quite a while afterwards as, for a few seconds at least, I felt I'd gone back to a previous age when men wore hats and would acknowledge one another by touching their brims in passing.

A few minutes later a young lad in his 20's came along on the other side of the road again.  He'd just bought a pack of cigarettes and in true British style, he removed the wrapping, peeled off the silver 'foil' and threw both on the ground before tipping out a cigarette.

The smile was wiped off my face.  

I so wanted The Colonel to come back and smack him with a cream coloured glove.

It would've been the classy thing to do.

5 comments:

Katie said...

This post made me laugh: My boyfriend is a police officer and he often laments about how in certian parts of Europe it is quite acceptable for a police officer to slap a youth in the face with his glove for being disrespectful. He wishes he was allowed to do this too.

Daphne said...

Aaah - - those moments where two strangers suddenly have a moment of understanding are very cheering and a Very Good Thing. Litter Lout Man will probably never experience them.

BAJ said...

Ha ha... I normally don't wear a hat, but if we by chance pass each other one day, I will pretend I wear one and touch my imaginative hat as a sign of respect. It would indeed be great if more people would do that small effort to spark a moment of happiness in the heart of others.

Anonymous said...

Well mannered habits like that seem so rare these days. In London the usual thing is NOT to even look at the person you pass on the street. I hate seeing people dropping litter also.

Anonymous said...

Gah - I wish the Colonel had clocked him one, too! I HATE litter louts!

My OH wears stylish hats. He's done so for years, and has been heartened lately to see that it's becoming more common. He favours fedoras two seasons of the year, and a genuine Ecuadorian panama for the summer.

The other season being winter, he's more likely to be seen in his 'East German border guard' fur-lined hat or his headsock.

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