Just Plain Tacky

When no other category fits the crime

In September, many years ago, my husband and I separated. We had two lovely children together, a cheerful boy eight years old and a lovely little girl, seven years old. My daughter kept having terrible headaches, was under a doctor's care, but in desperation, about a month after her father and I separated, I took her to the emergency room.

We had a long wait, as headaches are not high on the list for triage. When the MD finally saw her, she ordered a CAT scan, and came back with terrible news my daughter had a brain tumor and from the location it was probably cancerous. The MD was concerned enough to order a Stat flight to a hospital only 12 miles away.  It was life and death. I was beside myself, but kept a stuff upper lip so as not to scare my daughter. She was admitted to ICU.

The next morning I phoned my husband's place of work, as he had no phone where he was living, and left a message for him to come to the hospital immediately. Meanwhile I had spoken with the neurosurgeon and received the sad facts of this type of cancer. He arrived, I took him into a private conference room down the hall from ICU. I explained to him what our daughter had been diagnosed with, and that if she did not have surgery and treatment she would die, and that even after treatment, 50-70 percent of the children have a relapse, which (at that time, happily not true any longer) was fatal. The man looked at me, and said, and I quote, "I don't have any heat in my apartment."

Happily, my daughter is now 19, not without her problems, but alive and enjoying life, and the husband is an 'ex.    edhtacky0805-00

Ok, I realize that in many people's minds, retail service people are somewhere toward the bottom of the societal food chain, and movie stars are somewhere on top. However, status is no excuse for rudeness!

Several years ago while working as a clerk in a children's shoe store in Beverly Hills, I had the misfortune to meet a certain well-known actress.

Although there were no other customers in the store at the time, she dragged her kids into the store and shouted at the top of her lungs "HEY! Can I get some service over here?!" After drawing straws to see who got to deal with this paragon of female beauty and grace (I lost) I approached her. She not only didn't look me in the eye once, but she actually snapped her fingers at me!

Let me say here that in that particular location, I've dealt with many, many celebs, and most of them have been nice, normal people with well-adjusted kids. But this one must have been raised in a barn!  edhtacky0713-00

Page Last Updated May 15, 2007