I am visiting with my mother again and sure enough right on schedule her friend Gracie started interrogating me about the cost of my belongings and the price of my clothing, sporting equipment, protein bars you name it! 🙁 This woman is the widow of a man who owned an oil business=she is hardly in need. As much as I am frugal as well it is just plain TACKY not to mention INCREDIBLY POOR TASTE to ask others regardless of how well you know them how much their possessions are. Right after I complained to Gracie about how my mom’s other friends are too nosy, she intercedes with “do you mind my asking how much that new tennis racquet costs??” I always either change the conversation or reply that “I don’t know or I really don’t remember.” You would think that would give her a HINT and stop her but on the contrary she marches on with even more personal questions regarding cost and price! Next time I will ask her, “how much do you think it will cost me to get rid of my mother’s super nosy friends?” Knowing her she will tell me and remain clueless that SHE IS THE ONE I AM REFERRING TO! 🙁
Cheap Trick – I want you to want me not to have to tell you the price of every item that I own! 🙁
2 thoughts on “Marisa Sung’s Rules of Etiquette for the Modern World Number 42”
The post-Depression generation grew up with a heavy influence on cost after enduring a decade of penny pinching and knowing anyone who had possessions might have obtained them less than legally. Gracie is just a product of her upbringing.
Thank you for clearing that up for me! I am very frugal and have had friends and family make fun of me for it so I am no stranger to post depression thinking! 🙂 However, I never ask others about the cost of their possessions as that is just plain Tacky! Gracie is a product of a Kansas City upbringing and as such is accustomed to the unsophisticated “Mid-western Values System.” Some of the most rude and ill-bred individuals that I have ever met in my life come from the Mid-west from places like Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and Kansas! I don’t mean to “stereotype” but most of my mom’s friends who reside in her Senior Citizen’s Development are from those states and I have never been subjected to such rude behavior before. They lack greatly in good taste and decent manners! The accent is like a drill to the brain=especially the women! I cringe whenever I am forced to listen to it! It is very Faaarrrgo and Duck Dynasty!! The Baahston Accent is almost as bad but not quite! 🙁
Fargo