When I was little, my sister and I had a children’s book that had a picture of two men bowing to each other and saying, “After you.” “No, after you.” “No, after you.”
While, all the time, in the margins, their beards were getting longer and longer. Because, of course, they were so painfully polite, they were willing to stand there forever, bowing and being gracious, that neither of them would ever move at all.
I don’t know what put that into my mind this weekend, but there’s something about it that just tickles me to this day.
And I wanted to share.
There’s something delicious about the thought of people being so polite that they never get anything done … and that it was considered an important enough lesson to put in a children’s book.
These days, when expediency above all seems to be the rule, and when people casually cut in line at grocery stores, isn’t it nice to think about people being so achingly polite that their beards grow right off the page?
Do you happen to know their names?
I recently saw a discussion of an allusion to a similar situation, and they had names. It was agreed that such an allusion should be avoided, since no one actually got it.
Google is no help. I searched for “so polite they wouldn’t go through the door” and got a bunch of links about Canadians. Bully for our neighbors to the north, but I’m still stymied.
John Roach’s last blog post..Guest post: The power of language and how to hone it
In this post you mentioned how today “people casually cut in line at grocery stores.” Checkout this video on YouTube.com, titled “Man in Line,” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8h-uhoCmyH8 . It echos what you said and show how one fellow got the better of someone who did.
@John–No, as I recall, they didn’t have names, they were just illustrations with really superb manners! I’ll ask my sister, though, if she remembers what the book was…
This is bugging both my sister and me now … neither of us can remember the title or author of this picture book, but we definitely remember the book. It also had an endlessly repeating page of “Pete and Repeat were sitting on the fence. Pete fell off. Who was left? Repeat. Pete and Repeat were sitting on the fence …” Grr… faulty memories!
And, thanks for the video, Lawrence!
–Deb’s last blog post..Blogapalooza
I think this might be the book!
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1883672503?tag=chappysmom-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=1883672503&adid=00V6YVD6G0G86TGAP8MZ&