I don’t know if New York brings out the worst in people but two incidents got me wondering. The other day I decided to check out the movie Jurassic World on a giant IMAX screen in midtown Manhattan. I bought the tickets at an online kiosk inside the theater and then headed to a short line to get upstairs. While I was waiting in line, a woman and her pre-teen daughter (around 11 or 12 years old) tried to merge into the line right in front of me. So I spoke up and mentioned the line. The mother said that they were here first. As I looked at the woman in disbelief, the daughter said to her mom innocently, “mom, they were here before us”. I smiled and thanked the daughter for her honesty and her mom for raising such a great child, and then was directed around the corner outside where I waited in another line for an hour.
A few days later I headed upstairs to the M&M store in Times Square and waited in another short, informal line with my son at a special M&M “fortune telling” machine. Sure enough, a few minutes passed by when another woman and pre-teen daughter scooted in front of us. Again, I let them know that we were there before them. The mother then said they were there first. I smiled. Unbelievably, the girl told her mom that we were actually there first. Being as pushy as these mothers were, I assumed they were native New Yorkers but when I asked the girl where she was from she said, “San Francisco”.
Did New York push them over the edge or would they behave like that everywhere?