The
Old Coot says just call me Coot.
By
Merlin Lessler
I’ve
had dealings with some pleasant and interesting people over the last few
months. A profitable exchange with Coin Dealer Scott, a better than imagined
outcome with Tree Trimmer Mike and an always competent outcome with Insurance Agent
Woody. Some of my Florida interactions took place with Real-estate Michael, Car
Dealer Iancu and Builder Mike.
I
guess you can see the pattern here. Every person’s name was preceded by their
profession. A little weird isn’t it? At first glance anyhow. But not if you put
it into the context of how we address select, so called professionals. It’s not
Chuck Schumer, it’s Senator Schumer or Congressman Smith and Congresswoman White.
College teacher Cawley is Professor Cawley or Doctor Cawley. Most of us save
the use of “Doctor,” for medical doctors, but some PHD graduates refer to
themselves as doctor too. Even some with just an honorary degree. I’ve made up
the names to protect the innocent. The ones like Doctor Brown who says, “Please
just call me Bill.”
We
don’t live in a monarchy where people are forced to address royals like King
Charles or Prince William and a whole litany of other regal designations. This
is good old America where we are all equals. We are free to call everyone by
name, not title. But, maybe the title first and then name is the way to go. I’d
like it if it applied across the board. I’d have no trouble calling the
mechanical genius who fixes my car, Auto-Mechanic Joe. Or the craftsman who
handles all the household repairs on my residence, Carpenter and Handy Man Lee.
My
preference for using vocational titles for everyone would not set well with the
crowd that gets that special treatment. Politicians and college professors
would be insulted by our lack of respect. Some of them anyhow. They wouldn’t
want to be in the Joe Blow category where the rest of us reside. They’d claim, “I
worked hard and long to get here” (in the privileged class). Not any harder
than a Master Plumber or cabinet maker or the McDonald’s CEO, who started out flipping
burgers and earned his way to the top..
As
for myself, I’ll stick with my “Joe Blow” status and happily be referred to as Old
Coot, or like many of my friends do, just plain Coot.
No comments:
Post a Comment