Bench Hogs

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There are many incredibly selfish and inconsiderate people in the world. I seem doomed to meet each and every one of them personally. It is bad enough that some people won’t vacate a seat for a pregnant lady, a one legged individual, or an elderly person carrying a lot of heavy shopping. I have seen people eople who take a seat on a bench built for three and expect to keep it just to themselves really annoy me. You see a man or woman sit on a bench and fill the remaining space with shopping bags, expecting anyone else to stand up. Many people in fact do stand around them reluctant to ask them to let someone else sit down as well. I often walk up and ask politely but insistently for bags to be moved aside to enable me to sit down. This is usually done with a begrudging stare, and sometimes the bench-hog will get up and move off with said baggage as if deeply offended to seek another place to let their bags sit down. Such people also take over a bus seat for two by sitting as close to the outer edge of the seat as possible in the hope that no other passenger will dare ask them to move in and enable others to sit down too. I have seen people stand up right through a journey rather than ask them to move aside. I always stride right up and insist that they do move in. They glare at me as if it is the end of the World, but do reluctantly move aside, tutting and glaring at me as they do so. Arthur Chappell