As a kid, you stood in line a lot. Single file usually.
In the grocery store, I’m usually the guy afraid to go over to the candy aisle (if someone is behind me in line) to get a Snickers bar, for fear of losing my place. It seems fair if you leave the line, you lost your place. That’s what they said at Lincoln Elementary School.
At Lincoln, you couldn’t just let someone cut in line, with the permission of the people behind you. And you couldn’t “save” a place, it just wasn’t fair to the others. There was a code.
(you often did the “double cut”…you let them in front of you, then they do the same…it was a way around the “no back cuts” rule that some kids made…a lawyerish move)
In Latin America, there is no code. In the grocery store and in the street it’s every man for himself and there is no line to stand in, just a mass of people trying to fit through a small space. It's a culture of bullies and con men.
At the grocery store yesterday, I saw a 80ish year old woman elbow a kid in the ribs to get a plantain out of a basket before he could. There were probably 500 plantains in the basket. But she wanted to get there first…she did.
At checkout, you have to make sure there aren’t items in the cart in front of you, even if there are no people…people regularly put their cart in line, go and get more things, then reclaim their spot in line, saying, “I was here first.” Or they put a friend or beleaguered husband in line with a few items while they fill up their shopping basket and then cut in line in front of you.
The only rule seems to be “whatever you can get away with.”
