Saying 'Thank you'

Tweet

A post by @Janet357 brought this to mind. Once, several years ago, I had a friend visit. We were going to go for a day out, but as we set out, after we'd only gone a couple of miles the brake pads broke and fell off his car! (Turned out he was completely clueless about all things mechanical and hadn't realised they had been worn out for ages). Anyway we went back to my house where my housemate, who was a car fanatic, quickly got out his tool box and fixed the problem. He made it look easy but it was a reasonable job and would have cost at least half an hour’s labour plus parts at a garage. It took a while of course, as we had to go and buy the parts as well, so by the time it was done there was no time to go anywhere and the friend had to go home. But instead of saying thank you for all the work and trouble my housemate had gone to, he just hopped into the car and drove away! I was flabbergasted - and highly embarrassed. My housemate was understandably put out. He had gone to quite a lot of trouble to help out someone he didn’t even know, and didn’t even get a brief ‘Thanks’ in return! Of course I did express my considerable gratitude on his behalf, but it wasn’t quite the same. Some time later, when I asked the friend about this, he explained that saying thank you was just not something he did, he perceived it as some sort of affectation. I don’t think this is usual, and since then I noticed that he has adopted this custom, which I’m sure will make his social life run more smoothly! All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2022.