Monday, January 29, 2007

You're Welcome, Uh-Huh

WARNING! GEEZER ALERT! The following rant was written by a geezer who pines for the good old days when things were done right. If you are under the age of 35 and/or have the misguided notion that the good old days were just days and probably not all that good, read no further.

Otherwise...

Whatever happened to the words, "you're welcome"? I still say "thank you." But something has happened to the polite response, "you're welcome." It's been replaced with "uh-huh." That's if you're lucky. If not, your thanks will be met with a barely audible "mm-hmm" or a dismissive "yep." Yep?!! What's up with that?

You don't believe me? Go through a day saying "thank you" to as many people as possible. Then tell me how many "you're welcomes" you get in return. They're as scarce as hen's teeth, I tell you!

For those of you still reading, I thank you listening to my petty little tirade.

8 comments:

SteveA said...

Mark,

I remember when I was a teenager and sitting around with the men at some church-related function and listening to them say the similar things of course about "kids these days".

I didn't think this in the eighties or even the nineties but, you know, life is really quite different nowadays than it was in the sixties when we grew up.

Jim MacKenzie said...

uh-huh...

Anonymous said...

yep

Mark

xo.frost said...

I saw the title and thought that you were sending out a "you're welcome" to Caren's psychotic cat from the good 'ole days.

For those of you not in the know, Caren named the cat "Uh-Huh".

Kester Smith... said...

Mark-

You're welcome.

Also, I heard your daughter (and my old Lake Geneva and ACU compadre) Caren was living in Austin now. I am here as well, starting up a church plant that just turned 6 months old. I'd love to get in touch.

pastorkes@yahoo.com

-Kester (formerly known as Chris) Smith

Paula Harrington said...

You're welcome and thank you for posting :)

I was beginning to think I was the only one who noticed this. I seldom even hear "thank you" anymore when I'm shopping or just out and about. Sadly, being considerate isn't a top priority anymore.

Musability said...

Uh-huh is rude, I usually get it from unhappy service workers and grumpy receptionists. Uh-huh is like saying, yes, you should thank me for doing this crappy job that I hate.

New Greek said...

that's a really good point. there is something sadly missing in the mmhhmm prevalence, as if people don't care anymore.