Sunday, October 2, 2011

Fall festivals, dog strollers, and social skills…


Fall is definitely my favorite time of year. Cool crisp days. Blazes of color. Cuddling around a bonfire with a steaming cup of coffee. *blissful sigh* This particular spoke of the seasonal wheel renews my soul.

And during this gorgeous time of year, daughter and I always enjoy our annual excursions to a multitude of craft fall festivals. Here’s one of the goodies she and I discovered during our most recent trip.


I always take Jasper along. He loathes being left behind and always behaves like the perfect gentleman no matter how many small children stop us and ask, “Can I pet your puppy?” Jasper has a wag of his tail and a sloppy kiss for each and every one.
He got a bit perturbed at me during this most recent trip. Look at this awesome pet stroller I found! I put Jasper inside, zip it shut and he rides around in style.  Well. He rode around in style AFTER he glared up at me through the screen and telepathed some extremely foul words that I’d rather not include in this post. Jasper has this keen ability to let me know exactly what he’s thinking…and he wasn’t being very nice. I feel certain he called me some very choice names. After he finished making his opinion known, he finally settled down on the sheepskin pad and enjoyed the ride. 
I also made another observation during this trip. Every young person I encountered from high school age and younger was the perfect example of a polite, considerate individual. Yes ma’am. No ma’am. Excuse me. Please. Thank you. All of them were a delight.
They were a direct contrast to some of the so-called adults I endured. Even though these individuals were my age and older, several of them pushed, shoved, snatched, grabbed and generally exhibited rude behavior that is unacceptable in a crowd.
Parts of the festival were quite crowded, shoulder to shoulder in fact. One older gentleman decided that it was more effective to push people aside and bellow, “beep beep beep - I’m coming through” instead of the more acceptable, “excuse me, please”. Those type folks have a bad effect on me. They tend to trigger an extremely uncontrollable urge to either “accidently” stick out my foot and trip them or suddenly find it very necessary to stick my bony elbows out as far as they will go.
So, bravo to the polite, well-mannered youngsters in this world. I did notice and I do appreciate how you made my day more pleasant. I rarely hear about you on the news. Only the bad apples seem to get the spotlight.
And to the rude adults? Shame on you – you know better!

Happy Autumn Everyone! 

14 comments:

  1. Polite children are always a welcome surprise and a little ray of hope for the future. Tell Jasper he could learn a thing or two from them.

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  2. LOL! I'm afraid Jasper is incorrigible when it comes to riding in the stroller. He grudgingly lays down with a huff AFTER he makes his opinion quite clear. :-)

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  3. Jasper is adorable. I write with my little pom-poo Sadie Sue and the cats. she's too nervous to take anywhere, though. I love your crafty fall pics. As for crowds I avoid them if at all possible.

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  4. I love it when kids are polite & respectful too. I've done my darndest to raise my own son to be so & I always feel reassured when I come across good kids who show the same manners that I've worked hard instilling in my own son. And Jasper sounds like a real character! Thanks for sharing those cool fall pix.
    Alicia

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  5. Happy Fall, Beth :-) I don't much care for crowds either but I can't resist those craft festivals and I've got my daughter and Jasper to protect me.

    Thanks for stopping by, Alicia! I hope those kids and their parents know how much their caring attitudes are appreciated. It gives me hope for civilization's future! :-)

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  6. So true. We expect children to behave, and accept adults' bad behavior. I enjoyed your fall pictures. It's still summer in FL. No complaint. Why are you putting poor Jasper in a carriage? Why not let him frolic on a leach?

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  7. LOL! Don't worry about "Poor" Jasper, Mona. He gets to ride in the stroller after he refuses to walk any farther on his leash. When it gets extremely crowded and he gets to the point of fearing that he's about to get stepped on or he gets tuckered out, he wants to be carried. He's only a 9 lb. dog but that 9 lb. gets heavy if you carry it draped over one arm for several hours. ;-)

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  8. I love the way Jasper has you so well trained, Maeve. :) sounds like a lovely outing with your daughter. We've just sort of gotten humbugged about holiday of any kind anymore. I guess I am too lazy to drag out all the adorable ceramicis I've made over the years. Did enjoy yours, though. :)

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  9. You're so right about Jasper having me trained, Paisley! Thanks for stopping by.

    :-)

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  10. Isn't that the way of it? Rude people annoy me. Anyway, from the looks of things, you had a pretty amazing time (Jasper, not so much) and found some really great deals. Fall is my favorite time of year. *happy sigh*

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  11. BTW, be honest. Did you just post to see Jimmy Thomas at the top of your Blog post? ;-)

    Love the new site!

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  12. LOL! Guilty as charged, Victoria! *sigh* I am a bit partial to that header. ;-)

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  13. Loved the post, Maeve! And Jasper is sooooo cute!

    Happy Fall Hugs,
    Kari Thomas, www.authorkari.com

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