@#$!%^&**^$@!#%&

Recently, I was at a local fast food restaurant getting a quick bite to eat with my wife, when we witnessed a strange event.

A woman came in and ordered a cup of coffee. She waited at the counter, and when the employee gave her the cup, she paid and turned to leave. As she walked toward the door, she spilled some of the coffee. At this point, she sat the cup down on a nearby table and said:

"G-- - da---- son of a b----!"

She said this in an angry tone loud enough for everyone in the place to catch. Luckily, only one other customer was present, besides my wife and myself.

When the woman finished cleaning up the mess, she stalked over to the counter and spat:

"The next time you fix my coffee like that, you'll die!"

I don't know if the young man behind the counter heard her, but she left immediately after making her little threat.

Maybe the woman was mentally ill. I recognize that ever-increasing possibility, these days. But the more likely scenario was that she was just revealing her Class Z Jackass status with her little temper-tantrum.

I suppose the bigger picture is that I believe public decorum has gone straight down the tubes, flushed faster than a crackhouse toilet during a police raid. I hear open cursing in public often, these days. Such occurences were rare, when I was growing up--not unheard of, but not common, either. Now I hear people shamelessly spewing profanity and other filth in public, unconcerned about a little child or a gentle church lady overhearing their unpleasantness. They don't seem to care that most people view their behavior as cretinous and low-bred.

I don't see the transition from Southern hospitality to Southern vulgarity as a positive change in my neck of the woods.