During our short trip to Catalina, we had occasion to be confined in some fairly small places with a lot of people. The Catalina Flyer has rooms on board to seat perhaps a hundred in each, the restaurants we went to held sixty or so, and the hotel, while divided into many rooms, probably had a hundred guests.
Now I'm aware that each person is capable of a range of sound from whisper level up to scream, and many levels in between. I know a variety of interactions; celebrated occasions, conversations, even games played depending on the venue, go on ceaselessly in our lives. There are socially accepted behaviors in public, or there used to be.
Hopefully, without sounding too archaic, I want to ask "Where HAVE all the manners gone? Perhaps as I get older, my nerves are shot, but three times on this trip, in three different places, some one or several people have shrieked so loudly as to actually scare me! These people were in the confined, and formerly quiet places I mentioned, such as restaurants or on the boat. The occasion of a bridal shower, a bachelorette party, and a family game, all provided the sounding boards to decibels much higher than an airplane taking off. I know these people are excited, but what happened to civility and quiet joyfulness? Or parties in someone's living room?
In every restaurant, there seemed to be one person, (sometimes two) who had the voice of a soccer announcer, who kept up an endless barrage of talk, usually about themselves. Could these be the same people who made noise until midnight, and let their children yell at each other at 6 a.m. in the hotel?
On the street, some people screamed back and forth, others walked along conversing at the top of their lungs with someone on the other end of their phone. Small gangs walked three abreast, yelling at each other as if the Mississippi were between them. Actions speak louder than words when the mini-gang continues to walk straight at you on the sidewalk, obviously not caring if an older person has to fall off the curb or walk on wet grass.
Finally, one word; DRIVERS. Enough said. Thanks for reading my rant.
