Posted: May-11-2008 08:40AM

I decided it was finally time to read this now 3-page thread to see what it was all about.  Rather than share an anecdote I would like to share an observation or two.

First, I've not been to Tractor Supply even though they are around here.  I do however visit AgriSupply which is a similar jumbo farm store with nails by the pound.  I love their stuff.  I love the broad selection of interesting things and the slower pace of the store.

Second, there have been gripes in this thread about two categories of "entitled", those around 50 and the up-and-coming generation.  As I watched my parents age I saw a transition to the "I'm too old to put up with this krap" mentality.  I suspect some (though not all) of the stories previously in this thread involved older people in the "I'm not going to take it anymore" crowd.  I accepted this from my parents who taught me first and foremost 1) think of others first, and 2) the rules do apply to you.  I pass these same rules along to my own sons.  I consider the attitude of my parents a transition as they saw my generation growing up "spoiled" compared to how they had it.

I'm among the most technologically challenged or least "up to date" person on this board.  I have no cell phone, I only reluctantly got cable internet recently, and I paid cash at the gas pump for years after credit card pumps appeared.  I see in the young people I work with an excessive focus on instant self gratification.  Most of my young coworkers have no desire to work on a long development task and can't understand why they can't have hard parts in their hands within hours of a discussion.  It reminds me of an old TV commercial where someone placed an order online and a surfboard immediately started coming out of their fax machine.  It's all impatience and the need for everything to happen right then.  I suppose that's why I still don't have that cell phone.  I'm still OK with waiting and I'd like to think I still think of others first.

Doug L.

Posted: May-10-2008 01:53PM

So I just went to the Movies today.  Saw Ironman.  Really liked it.  Now onto the story.

So we walk up to the ticket booth.  There are about 7 ticket booths in a row, but there are only 2 open, and they are right next to each other.  There is 1 line of about 25 people, so I walk up and stand in the back of the line.  I could tell as I walked up that when you get to the front, the next person in line was going to whichever window opened next.  I am thinking that this is great that everyone is being nice, and the line is moving pretty quickly.  Then some guy, about 50 years old, walks up with his wife(?) and decides to go all the way to the front because there are 2 windows and only 1 line.  He says something that I can not remember as he is passing me to go to the front.  I say, "Hey, the line starts back here".  He then mouthes off "Don't tell me what to do", really snotty like.  Of course he does go to the back of the line, which is right behind me.  I am still thinking, how important that guy must think he is.  Oh yeah.  And he had a bluetooth thing in his ear for his cell phone, which he wore throughout the movie theater.

Quack.  Quack.   Orange Cream soda.  Shaken, not stirred.
Served with a side of melted peanut butter toast.

Posted: Apr-30-2008 01:24AM

~Mike

Posted: Apr-30-2008 12:11AM

Spank and I were talkin about how impatient people are when I was back visiting SD last year.  I know I'm no angel, but I really do try to be at least civil to strangers and friends alike.  eople seem so hell-bent on being a total AH these days.  Several folks have pointed it out, and I agree - what ever happened to common decency towards your fellow humans?  Jeez.  A "Hello", "thank you" or "Sir / Ma'am" never hurt anyone.  

I think a lack of responsible parenting has a lot to do with it. That and the "now now now!" nature of our culture as I remember Spank sayin' it.  If everyone would just take a second and breathe we'd all be ok.  'Specially when we're driving!  There *are* real people in those other cars.

I guess it's ...uh... zen time for me or something.  

----------------------------------------------
My Higher Authority is the German Purity Law of 1516 . 

Posted: Apr-29-2008 01:52PM

arwally,

When I got to the store w/ my girls, if there is not a shopping cart corral within eyeshot of my car, I will abandon it (in a safe place).  I won't leave my kids alone in the car in a crowded parking lot.  Too many whackos out there.

mtgibby                                                                                                               

Posted: Apr-29-2008 08:35AM

That's exactly the point I was trying to get across, I think that in metro areas you have a higher concentration of "hurry up and go" people and inconsiderate people than in more rural areas where things are slower, more relaxed etc.

BTW, even better than TSC is Rural King or Farm and Fleet! All of them have friendly people working there, friendly people shopping there, you always see one or two people that you know and stop and talk to. One of the worst places to shop here? WallyWorld/Krogers, people will run you over in the parking lot to get a close space and will run into you with carts if you are not on the ball, or give you dirty looks if they are in the aisle and you ask them to move over so you can pass through...always a stressful experience for me anyways.

Posted: Apr-27-2008 07:08PM Edited:  Apr-27-2008 07:13PM

Thank you Robin!!

There's a Tractor Supply in Turlock...I have a distant cousin in Turlock!  We are Grandsons of Canadians who migrated from Ontario to British Columbia, with some heading south into Washington, Oregon and California in the early years of the 20th century!!

Mini friends!  Mini rides!

Restored/modified Mini 1000 with 1380cc power unit, 2.95:1 FD, adj. suspension, S discs/drums, 10x5 Minilites, 165x70 A008s, custom trim and matching custom trailer.

Posted: Apr-27-2008 07:06PM

You guys need to come to rural VT where no one is in a hurry, no one hurries to pass the tractor, and everyone chats in the conveinence/general store for 15 minutes.

Anyway, this makes for a great place to drop inner city young adults (like from NYC) who didn't make it in the job world.  I teach at Job Corps in rural VT with farms all around that spray manure.  Gotta love that smell.  These maladjusted, entitled, so cool "gangsta" youth just about climb the walls.  Everything has to be now.  It's just TOO funny (or a sad commentary to our future).  The stories I could tell.  Was the impatient driver one of our graduates??

"People may doubt what you say, but they will always believe what you do."

Posted: Apr-27-2008 06:54PM

Here ya go Rick;

 www.tractorsupply.com

Looks like they have several stores in those areas...

They're kinda like a K-Mart for the rural folks. And, just like K-Mart, Harbor Frieght, Home Depot, Loews. Wally World, and all the rest during the last twenty years are mostly stocked with cheap offshore sourced stuff.
All that said, the local Tractor Supply has a decent selection of hardware, durable clothing, and towing accessories...  Can't say much about their supplies for critters since I don't own any but they do seem to have a large area of the store dedicated to them.

Zip

Posted: Apr-27-2008 06:37PM

Never been to Tractor Supply...never even heard of it.  Sounds like a very civilized environment for we humans.

Can I find one in Washington, Oregon or California?  If so, will seek it out on MMW trip in June!

Mini friends!  Mini rides!

Restored/modified Mini 1000 with 1380cc power unit, 2.95:1 FD, adj. suspension, S discs/drums, 10x5 Minilites, 165x70 A008s, custom trim and matching custom trailer.

Posted: Apr-27-2008 04:41PM

The masses are asses!

There is no such thing as a boring car, hop in I'll show you.....

Posted: Apr-27-2008 04:38PM

That really says it all, doesn't it.. and is self-evident when you stop to think about it.

Bill

Posted: Apr-26-2008 11:48AM

I pulled out to leave and some AH in a volvo comes blasting around the bend and proceeds to ride my bum like a jockey, I go about a 1/4 of a mile and instead of going 2mph or driving like a bat out of hell to get away from him I calmly put on my signal and go into the central reservation, I was rolling and he slowed down to stay behind, I then stopped, He pulled level and I made a motion (not rude) to allow him to pass, he shook his head violently and would not pass, I moved a bit, he moved a bit and still would not go forward. I ended up getting back in the lane and moving on. I guess I looked a bit manic all covered in sweat after a workout but few would find me threatening, He turned off at the next junction.

I guess its not only young folks that have no sense of decency, he was about 60.

sometimes its just stupidity.

Peter

No more cars left, Westpaminis is now just a memory, Good luck to all those hard working dealers left out there, We can tell you its not easy. We have fully enjoyed meeting all the fine folks we have in the business.

Posted: Apr-26-2008 10:19AM

If one were treated like a princess from birth, I'd think a person would grow up believing they were special.

I see young parents doing these silly actions all the time with their teen children in the car with them.

One of my pet peeves, and older people are just as bad about it, is cutting across a busy, filled parking lot like WalMart going between empty parking places. An elderly man (I'm old too, but..) about t-boned me coming out between two parked cars just this past week. He had to have been doing 25 mph! I drive more defensively in parking lots than on the road sometimes.

Opinions I express here do not reflect my wife's.

Posted: Apr-26-2008 03:38AM

Quack.  Quack.   Orange Cream soda.  Shaken, not stirred.
Served with a side of melted peanut butter toast.

Posted: Apr-25-2008 01:38PM

Every day going between classes I'm nearly run over dozens of times...as if I was invisible. The attitude is "why should I move? Get out of my way, old man."

I've had them contact me, sometimes weeks and months after the end of a semester, wanting their grade raised. Because they'll flunk out of school. Their parents are going to kill them. They'll lose their scholarship. They won't be able to transfer to UT.

I always ask them, "What, exactly, is the reason for the change of grade that I have to put down on the official form handed in to the university administration?"

This usually shuts them up...but not always.

Also, any excuse they come up with, some really lame, for missing class should be immediately accepted without question. I say, "Where's your ER bill?"

Opinions I express here do not reflect my wife's.

Posted: Apr-25-2008 05:39AM

"Come to the Edge"he said,"I'm afraid"I said,"come to the Edge"he said, I did...and he pushed me off,...and I FLEW.

Posted: Apr-25-2008 05:33AM Edited:  Apr-25-2008 05:47AM

we've spent the last thirty years so worried about everyones' "self esteem". Well, we've got it now...SELF esteem.

One of my pet peeves: people who are too lazy to put shopping carts where they belong or, heaven forbid, actually take them back into the store. The other day I observed an able-bodied mid-twenties guy leave his cart in the space behind his spotless JEEP (denying anyone using THAT space) and proceeded to drive ahead not seeing that some other idiot left a cart right in front of his vehicle. Yup, drove right over it, jamming it under his front axle destroying the cart and probably not doing his Jeep any good either. Boy was he mad. I gave it a WOOHOO and a BWAA-HAAA-HAAAAAA!

Posted: Apr-25-2008 05:04AM

That's amazing to me that someone would hit your car, then say "oh I hit your car" and walk off!! Some people are a trip, I think I would have just sat there with my mouth open for a good minute or two just trying to process what she just did and told me.

But with the Tractor Supply place, I tend to think it is because the men that shop there are older gentlemen who are are respectful to ladies and just very polite to others (customers AND employees) . It has a nice environment in there, I am always happy when I leave, the people that shop there remind me of my small hometown filled with farmers. It may have been a little behind the times but people were so much nicer there as opposed to the city where I live now.