At last night’s knit night, I wound up telling the tale of the postal clerk several times. Everyone was appropriately outraged, as I was by the time I got there that night. It was pointed out that since it was assault on federal property, it was probably a felony. I love the way my friends leap to my defense. Y’all are great.
The more I think about yesterday’s unpleasantness with the postal worker, the angrier I get. That guy would never have hit a male patron on the head. Ever. And I can’t excuse his behavior as being because he’s a teenager or “of a certain age.” He couldn’t be more than 50, tops. Of course, age isn’t an excuse anyway. My father wouldn’t do that to a strange girl, and he’s – sorry, Dad – close to being “of a certain age.” He’d to it to me, because he’s my dad, but that’s fine. Because he’s my dad. Not some random guy in a store.
He popped me on the head like I was a child. But I’m a 39-year-old woman. Unfortunately, the key there is “woman” which I believe he subconsciously saw as lesser. I’m not going to draw that out. I’m sure you can see where it’s going.
Unfortunately, I’m up at that post office several times a week, and I can’t be seething with rage every time I go in there, so I’m going to have to talk to him. I get that in his mind, we were joking around, and I was smiling at that point, so I’m not going to talk to his boss or be mean. But I do feel that I need to let him know that it’s not really appropriate to pop his customers on the head, and also point out that that kind of behavior in the workplace is a good way to have sexual harassment charges leveled at him. He won’t know if nobody tells him. Fortunately, I don’t mind being the one to say these things when they need to be said.
Still, not exactly big fun. Oh well.
ETA: I just stopped by, and the clerk wasn’t there. However, the new-guy clerk who helped me today gave me a lollipop. Ordinarily, that’d be no big deal, but on the heels of the other, it’s just becoming comedic. It’s me, isn’t it? It’s something about me that says, “I’m eight years old.”