Sycamore the Commuter: You're Too Damned Close!!!

[elSicomoro]

Welcome to Sycamore's new series, "Sycamore the Commuter." Through these threads, Sycamore will share stories of his days in the concrete jungle called Center City Philadelphia. He hopes to pass his insight on to others, and in turn, obtain insight from others that might share.

This thread: You're Too Damned Close!!!

A branch of my bank is directly across the street from my office. Sweet! I can run across and get $$$ whenever I need it.

I really don't use ATMs much...maybe once or twice a week tops. And I have found my ATM dealings here in Philadelphia to be rather unique, as there seem to be few ATMs that are drive-ups, at least in the city. So, whenever I head to one, there is usually a small queue of people. No big whoop...I'm not an impatient bastard, so I wait and chill until it's my turn.

I'm a big fan of giving folks space. I figure 5-10 feet is pretty adequate. It seems to make people feel pretty comfortable...and other people seem to do the same.

So, seeing as I forgot my lunch Monday morning like a moron, I headed across the street to the ATM to get some cash for lunching. There's one guy in front of me...cool...I give him some space. (And there's plenty of space to be given...the ATM is outside on a small plaza with lots of space between the ATM and Market Street.) One person is behind me, and she seems to keep her distance.

Then, I get up to the ATM. And as I put my card in, I feel this uncomfortable presence. Sure enough, it's the lady behind me, who has given me maybe 2 feet or so of space. She can practically look over my shoulder. As I go through my motions, I look back at her a couple of times, finally giving her an ignorant ass look that made her step back. I repeated the look after getting my cash and my card.

Yeah, I probably could have been more polite and said, "Do you mind?" For all I know, she could have been a foreigner, and many foreigners have a much closer personal space. I dunno...to me, that's just something that should be understood. You don't hover over someone at an ATM. That's just asking for trouble. In the future, if the situation occurs again, I may attempt to be more polite.