<p>Two years ago S and I attended a community theatre performance of O’Neill’s “Long Day’s Journey Into Night.” It was the Sunday afternoon matinee,and there weren’t that many people. One group of older folks sat in the back and chatted a lot during the performance. What really startled us, though, was one elderly man sitting up front who coughed a LOT. This play is very long, and at one point someone in the audience had his tolerance level exceeded, and so he yelled out, “For God’s sake!” There was some brief murmuring, but then things continued on.</p>
<p>S and I laugh about that play to this day. We saw about four different community theatre performances (requirement for one of his courses), but this one was probably the most memorable. Part of that was of course the play itself, but also memorable was the audience participation.</p>
<p>And I’d like to ask people not to go to sports events if you’re not interested. Stay home
instead of discussing your children, menus or gossip in the bleacher behind me. Also, stay in your seats and save the meet and greet for halftime. Season ticket holders, particularly you with inside seats, could you try to be on time and not sit down only to decide to go to the concession stand ten minutes into the game? I’m sick and tired of moving for you for avoidable reasons.
The problem here is a general lowering of basic standards of courtesy in the country
and a lack of awareness. The season ticket holders next to me are nice people and would be shocked to know how rude we find them and how much we hope they won’t renew their seats next year!</p>
<p>I can understand your complaint about people getting up and down, constantly, checkbook, but unless it is golf, there isn’t any expectation of silence at a sporting event, is there? What difference does it make what they talk about?</p>
<p>I can’t fault thecheckbook’s logic—for why attend any event if one is not primarily interested in the proceedings?—and yet it remains true that I never could have sat through all those games at Wrigley without the aid of beer and sidebar conversations to distract me from the carnage on the field. :)</p>
<p>My pet peeve is when parents leave as soon as their kids are finished with their performance. They do not have the courtesy to sit through other kids’ performance, and appreciate the fact many of those have practiced for months to put on a performance. I don’t even mind if they have their crying babies with them. I just find it extremely rude to get up and leave in a middle of performance.</p>
<p>I have no interest in sporting events unless my kids are playing. I tell H to go to the game and I stay home.</p>
<p>As for parents leaving after their children are done performing, that bothers me too. When I was in HS, it was very typical at graduation for parents to leave after their child walked up.My parents refused to do this, but not a lot of us were left to see those kids at the end of the alphabet.</p>
<p>I am an usher at a hockey arena. People there are pathetic. I can’t let them go down until after a stop in play (which should be common courtesy anyway) and I have had some almost knock me down to get by me, even though I told them to stay put. It’s like… really? Or the ones that let their kids run up and down the aisle and then give me glares when I go ask them to please keep their kids in the seats. Sorry, parent, it’s dangerous to let your kid run up and down stairs during a hockey game, for so many reasons!</p>
<p>My other personal pet peeve is when people go somewhere (ie hockey games) in skimpy outfits and then tell me it’s too cold. ??? IT’S AN ICE ARENA! </p>
<p>It’s not that people don’t have common sense. As a society, many of us have lost all sense of common courtesy. From tailgating on a highway if the person in front of you isn’t going fast enough to thinking you are the most special person in the world and rules don’t apply to you. I’m a little surprised to hear that so many of the offenders were senior citizens. In my experience, it is thirty somethings and under that have this sense of entitlement that they can do whatever they please whenever they please. I have been to three Broadway shows over the past six months - a mixture of matinees and evening performances and, luckilly, didn’t experience the rude behavior other posters have experienced.</p>
<p>I think I got my “practice” of being quiet during performances from attending church. I still remember how many of us kids were hauled out to the front church steps by our dads for making noise during the service.</p>
The seniors who have lost some of their hearing really think they’re whispering, even when they’re not. They can’t hear themselves or each other.
If they’ve lost their hearing, they also can’t hear the actors or understand the action on stage. I know that this was my mom’s problem - she was a big theater-goer, but can’t go anymore.
Some seniors believe, as I have been told, that they “earned” the right to act any way they want and say anything they want (usually just after they’ve insulted you).</p>
<p>My nephew works at a dinner theater. He always gets a good chuckle on senior citizen’s day. He says they sneak the butter packets off the table and every time he comes back to serve them more water/food they very innocently ask for more butter packets. Over and over again. :p</p>
<p>I think we are being very hard on senior citizens. I have read that nearly half of seniors over 85 suffer from dementia. This leads to memory loss, loss of judgment, inability to plan, loss of language skills, and personality changes. It’s not that they choose to be recalcitrant, outspoken, or even unaware of their surroundings. They are not the same people they were just a few years ago.</p>
<p>But then maybe they do not belong in a quiet theater in large groups where they often cause a disruption… I suspect the situation is made worse by the fact they are going to certain events as a group. They are not necessarily choosing to go. They are being taken. Perhaps certain shows can be designated as senior citizen shows. There are restrictions on children attending certain events. And many seniors with dementia are likely to act like children. No, they are not doing it on purpose. Neither are two year-olds. But there is a time and a place for those who cannot help but act like two year-olds.</p>
<p>This makes for rather racous meetings (there are mostly seniors at the meetings I help moderate). They bring all their experiences with them and some have a lot of anger due to their poor health and other issues. They being that with them as well. This is one of the few social outlets a few of them have, so we make it work, but it is tiring when some of them are so abrasive we feel like referees.</p>
<p>I agree that people who can’t follow appropriate rules/conduct should attend events where they don’t overly impose on others, especially if they’re being brought to an event as a group. There should be some screening and expectation, just as there is before we take kids to outings/field trips. </p>