R-E-S-P-E-C-T Find out what it means to me
At the movie theater I work on the weekends, I sometimes am the usher that cleans up after the movie. We sometimes get into the movie before it ends, watch the last few minutes and start cleaning.
On Sunday, I was working the noon-5 pm shift, and it was 4:35 pm, only 25 minutes left. I went to one theater showing the end of “Step Up,” the hip hop dancing movie with smoking hot Channing Tatum. In the front row is 4 young teenage girls and one parent. The movie ends, they walk by me, and I clean up the few scraps of popcorn and empty drink cups.
I leave the theater and see the parent and one child going into theater 19, the next theater I have to go clean. No problem, though we usually try to clean the empty theater, but these people can sit in trash for all I care. I know I am supposed to stop the theater jumping, but I only had about 20 minutes to go and didn’t care that much. As I walked up to the theater, the other 3 girls came from the lobby on my right and, upon seeing me, starting walking faster towards theater 19. I said “Excuse me,” and they ignored me, walking faster, so I said “Excuse me,” 3 more times. Then, as I was partially annoyed at this point, I said “STOP!” loudly, but again, not rudely. Unfortunately, just as I said that last word is when the last one had opened the door wide to theater 19.
I asked them to stop outside while I cleaned the theater, and as I walked in, the parent stuck her head over the railing (this is a stadium seating theater, and they had walked about half way to the top already) and said “What are you saying to my daughters?”
I point out to her, in a very nice way to be honest, that I need to clean the theater and they need to step out of the theater while I finish. She mumbles something as I walk up the steps next her about not talking to her daughters like that, and when we are about 10 rows from each other, she says clearly “You don’t have to be a fucking asshole about it.” This does annoy me, so I said “I now see where they get it from.” We did some minor bickering while I cleaned and she walked out. At no point did I use vulgar language towards her or even in her presence.
Just as I’m finishing up, I hear the squeak of the door and a deep, bellowing voice “Whatchoo saying to my family?” I ignore this and try to finish my job, purposely not even acknowledging this man. “Whatchoo doin’ talkin’ to my family likes dat? You can’t be disrespectin’ dem like dat.” I turn and see a 65-ish man with silver hair and about 3 teeth, though is large and about my height, 6’2”, closer to 300 lbs, in a maroon valor jump suit. He reminded me of a fat Huggy Bear. And he looked familiar because he and two younger boys were in the movie “Crank” just about 15 minutes prior to this when I went in there to clean that theater.
“I was asking them to wait outside while I clean the theater,” I say to him, hoping he will understand that I am just doing a job and he can wait until I am finished to sit. Sadly, he is not interested in leaving me alone, he is interested in the perceived lack of respect for his children, while ignoring the disrespect his wife and children showed me.
“You cants be talkin’ to my family likes dat,” he bellows again. I shake my head and go back to cleaning. “I sees you is a coward,” he then says.
This angered me, so I jump over the railing (I was in the front row of the stadium seating, so no big drop here) and get into his face, nose to nose with him (and that is how I know how tall he is.) and started tell him “I asked them to wait outside, and they wouldn’t stop at all.”
Huggy Bear, however, was having none of actual talking. He wanted to continually accuse me of “disrespectin’” his family, which seemed, from his reaction, to be on par with murdering them. I asked if he was going to calm down to talk rationally, and he answered in some incoherent scream and then exaggeratedly tried to get something out of the pocket of this valor jumps suit. I was certain that he was getting out some weapon and I remember thinking “$6/hour is not worth this at all!”
I walked out of the theater and radioed for a manager in front of theater 19. Huggy Bear kept yelling at me that I was disrespectin’ his family, and that I was a coward. When the manager came around the corner, she immediately went into damage control: “How can we settle this dispute?”
He said that his family spend lots of money at the theater and “We ain’t never been treated like dis.” Then he points to me and says “If we’s was white, he wouldn’t talk to them all like ‘Step outside.”
All of my senses were being attacked by this fucking idiot. I point at his wife and say “She is the one who was disrespecting me.” At which point he said “Don’tchoo be pointin’ at my wife!”
So I point to him with both index fingers, very purposely, and said “And then you come into the theater and disrespecting me! So don’t talk to me about disrespecting.” My poor manager was trying to stay in the middle of us, as she later told me she didn’t think he would swing at her. I pointed out to her that, at that point, I mostly wanted him to swing at me. I was ready to take him down.
He leans in to me, pointing at me, and says quite clearly “I don’t gots to respect you!” Then I think part of him heard what he said and tried to justify it “I gots kids older than you.” I was befuddled by that remark. I still think he meant that he didn’t have to respect a low income theater cleaner.
Before I could say anything, his wife says “I just told you that you don’t gots to talk to my kids like that,”
I look at her with probably the only time I came close to and said “But you were the one who used foul language at me,” and she starts denying it, but then admits that she called me a fucking asshole.
Sadly, there is no resolution to this type of insanity. They walk back into theater 19, and my manager is happy that there were no fists thrown and that the shouting has stopped. I will point out that I didn’t raise my voice at any time, I talked rationally the whole time, and I never swore at them. We check and there was no one who had paid to be in theater 19 at that point in time, proving they jumped from movie to movie.
I will also say that for all his grandstanding about respect and being angry with me, he didn’t actually ever touch me.
And I attribute his entire attitude to the fact that him and his family were caught stealing movies. I know we all think that going from one theater to another when you’ve only paid for one is no big deal, but it still is a form of stealing. And most people, when caught, are just sheepish.
And clearly, if he isn’t going to respect anyone else, I don’t need to be respecting him.
On Sunday, I was working the noon-5 pm shift, and it was 4:35 pm, only 25 minutes left. I went to one theater showing the end of “Step Up,” the hip hop dancing movie with smoking hot Channing Tatum. In the front row is 4 young teenage girls and one parent. The movie ends, they walk by me, and I clean up the few scraps of popcorn and empty drink cups.
I leave the theater and see the parent and one child going into theater 19, the next theater I have to go clean. No problem, though we usually try to clean the empty theater, but these people can sit in trash for all I care. I know I am supposed to stop the theater jumping, but I only had about 20 minutes to go and didn’t care that much. As I walked up to the theater, the other 3 girls came from the lobby on my right and, upon seeing me, starting walking faster towards theater 19. I said “Excuse me,” and they ignored me, walking faster, so I said “Excuse me,” 3 more times. Then, as I was partially annoyed at this point, I said “STOP!” loudly, but again, not rudely. Unfortunately, just as I said that last word is when the last one had opened the door wide to theater 19.
I asked them to stop outside while I cleaned the theater, and as I walked in, the parent stuck her head over the railing (this is a stadium seating theater, and they had walked about half way to the top already) and said “What are you saying to my daughters?”
I point out to her, in a very nice way to be honest, that I need to clean the theater and they need to step out of the theater while I finish. She mumbles something as I walk up the steps next her about not talking to her daughters like that, and when we are about 10 rows from each other, she says clearly “You don’t have to be a fucking asshole about it.” This does annoy me, so I said “I now see where they get it from.” We did some minor bickering while I cleaned and she walked out. At no point did I use vulgar language towards her or even in her presence.
Just as I’m finishing up, I hear the squeak of the door and a deep, bellowing voice “Whatchoo saying to my family?” I ignore this and try to finish my job, purposely not even acknowledging this man. “Whatchoo doin’ talkin’ to my family likes dat? You can’t be disrespectin’ dem like dat.” I turn and see a 65-ish man with silver hair and about 3 teeth, though is large and about my height, 6’2”, closer to 300 lbs, in a maroon valor jump suit. He reminded me of a fat Huggy Bear. And he looked familiar because he and two younger boys were in the movie “Crank” just about 15 minutes prior to this when I went in there to clean that theater.
“I was asking them to wait outside while I clean the theater,” I say to him, hoping he will understand that I am just doing a job and he can wait until I am finished to sit. Sadly, he is not interested in leaving me alone, he is interested in the perceived lack of respect for his children, while ignoring the disrespect his wife and children showed me.
“You cants be talkin’ to my family likes dat,” he bellows again. I shake my head and go back to cleaning. “I sees you is a coward,” he then says.
This angered me, so I jump over the railing (I was in the front row of the stadium seating, so no big drop here) and get into his face, nose to nose with him (and that is how I know how tall he is.) and started tell him “I asked them to wait outside, and they wouldn’t stop at all.”
Huggy Bear, however, was having none of actual talking. He wanted to continually accuse me of “disrespectin’” his family, which seemed, from his reaction, to be on par with murdering them. I asked if he was going to calm down to talk rationally, and he answered in some incoherent scream and then exaggeratedly tried to get something out of the pocket of this valor jumps suit. I was certain that he was getting out some weapon and I remember thinking “$6/hour is not worth this at all!”
I walked out of the theater and radioed for a manager in front of theater 19. Huggy Bear kept yelling at me that I was disrespectin’ his family, and that I was a coward. When the manager came around the corner, she immediately went into damage control: “How can we settle this dispute?”
He said that his family spend lots of money at the theater and “We ain’t never been treated like dis.” Then he points to me and says “If we’s was white, he wouldn’t talk to them all like ‘Step outside.”
All of my senses were being attacked by this fucking idiot. I point at his wife and say “She is the one who was disrespecting me.” At which point he said “Don’tchoo be pointin’ at my wife!”
So I point to him with both index fingers, very purposely, and said “And then you come into the theater and disrespecting me! So don’t talk to me about disrespecting.” My poor manager was trying to stay in the middle of us, as she later told me she didn’t think he would swing at her. I pointed out to her that, at that point, I mostly wanted him to swing at me. I was ready to take him down.
He leans in to me, pointing at me, and says quite clearly “I don’t gots to respect you!” Then I think part of him heard what he said and tried to justify it “I gots kids older than you.” I was befuddled by that remark. I still think he meant that he didn’t have to respect a low income theater cleaner.
Before I could say anything, his wife says “I just told you that you don’t gots to talk to my kids like that,”
I look at her with probably the only time I came close to and said “But you were the one who used foul language at me,” and she starts denying it, but then admits that she called me a fucking asshole.
Sadly, there is no resolution to this type of insanity. They walk back into theater 19, and my manager is happy that there were no fists thrown and that the shouting has stopped. I will point out that I didn’t raise my voice at any time, I talked rationally the whole time, and I never swore at them. We check and there was no one who had paid to be in theater 19 at that point in time, proving they jumped from movie to movie.
I will also say that for all his grandstanding about respect and being angry with me, he didn’t actually ever touch me.
And I attribute his entire attitude to the fact that him and his family were caught stealing movies. I know we all think that going from one theater to another when you’ve only paid for one is no big deal, but it still is a form of stealing. And most people, when caught, are just sheepish.
And clearly, if he isn’t going to respect anyone else, I don’t need to be respecting him.
posted by Mike at 2:15 PM
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