I am always saying I would love to step back in time to experience some of the romanticized periods in history but, this past couple weeks, I have foreseen my possible future and I am not sure how I feel about it. I briefly mentioned in an earlier article that I fell a couple times in February and the result of the last fall was one badly sprained ankle while the other was a little weakened. 

 

After a couple days on the couch, I couldn’t stand being in the house any longer so I grabbed a cane, which used to belong to my father-in-law,  and now  hangs in our foyer, and went to morning coffee then to the grocery store.

 I had to use the cane for about a month and, during this time, I noticed that I was treated differently when I using the cane, as opposed to when I did not use it. Suddenly, chivalry and common courtesy returned.

 

Gentlemen, of all ages, opened doors for me, asked if I would like to step ahead in grocery lines and a couple men asked if they could carry my packages. Younger women inquired about the bandages on my ankle and if I needed help; store clerks, many of whom do not engage in customer service anymore, were also quite helpful.  Oddly enough, women of my own age completely ignored my condition .

 

I am asking myself, will this happen when I am twenty years older? I could really get to like the return of common courtesy. I am so used to fending for myself, in this impersonal age,  that I just might like to utilize this cane even when I no longer need it! I am not sure what this says about society but if you think all is lost, it really isn’t. My faith in humankind has been restored, especially in the youth of today. Thankfully, I was NOT helped across a road I did not want to cross.

 

The cane proved useful in other ways too. Once, I could not reach a Kleenex box on the top grocery shelf and instead of climbing up on the bottom shelf ( which is what I usually do),  I just turned the cane around, hooked the box and drew it closer to the edge of the shelf. Another time, I found it difficult to hold open a door while carrying  packages and a cup of coffee so I simply stuck the cane in the door to wedge it open while I passed through.

 

Yet another time, during a particularly windy day, my grocery cart began to roll away from me and my cane became an extension of my arm and I grabbed the cart with the cane and pulled it back.

Hey, this cane thing might not be as bad as I always thought !