I Was Speechless Why a Portland High School Student Scoffed at Me!

I seriously wish I could have a do-over.

I work at One City Center in Portland. It's a place I love and adore and have worked at for almost 30 years (starting in the 80s). It's cool to work at One City Center. It's a super classy building, and one of the tallest in Maine. It has a glass elevator, escalators, and a Dunkin'! I feel very lucky.

It's also centrally located to Portland High School. It's just a hop, skip, and a jump for them to come over to the Food Court. And they usually come in droves. That's cool - whatever. I'm happy for the businesses in the Food Court as I know them all and they are all great! There's City Deli and Tic Tac O. I usually try to avoid the time that the kids pour in because it can create some long lines. No biggy.

But for some reason, I decided to go see Dalia at City Deli right in the middle of the blizzard of teenagers! Dalia is the creator of Cowboy Candy! So I patiently waited in line to order my sandwich. Then some punk kid cut right in front of me and started placing his order. I said to him,

Dude. The line is back there.

There were about 5 people behind me.

That kid, with no hesitation at all looked me square in the eye, rolled his eyes, scoffed at me, and continued his order.

Here's where I have some serious regret. I did nothing. I was so stunned that I was actually speechless. I looked at Dalia, who was juggling so many things and in the nicest most professional way - and she too was stunned and she didn't do anything either.

I could see in her eyes she felt bad. She felt bad for this kid's incredible lack of manners and for me...my eyes must have screamed regret! Here is this kid bullying two women and sadly getting away with it! Dalia asked if I had a card and then said

Come on over and meet me at the side door.

That's where she let me skip the line, pay for my sandwich, and then brought me my sandwich. We shook our heads over the audacity of that punk kid. As my father would say to me every once in a while when I was getting a little too big for my britches,

Who do you think you are?

Yes, you little blonde punk - who do you think you are? Obviously, you have the great confidence to think you are better than everyone else in that line. You think that you are above common courtesy. You are lucky, my teenage awful human. Because the next time you pull that crap, you may find someone who doesn't let them walk all over them - as I did.