Don’t call me Shirley…or sir

One of moviedom’s biggest comic contributions came from Airplane! when Ted Striker (Robert Hays) tells Dr. Rumack (Leslie Nielson) “surely, you can’t be serious.” Rumack replies:

“I am serious — and don’t call me Shirley.”

No one’s calling me Shirley but they are calling me “sir.”

And I’m not liking it.

When I was younger, I called most everyone over a certain age, “sir”. Just seemed appropriate and respectful, especially if I couldn’t remember his name. In fact over the weekend, I saw a fellow who’s older than me who I hadn’t seen in a while and, without thinking about it, I called him “sir.”

Now, I never called women of a certain age “ma’am,” but that’s another story.

It was bad enough when some 20-somethings at the golf course said to me, “Sir, you mind if we play through?” Or, “sir, are you waiting for someone to play with or can we tee off?”

That was hard enough to get past. But not the hardest. Lately, men in their 50’s and older call me sir. That’s hard to swallow, I have to be honest.

Clearly, you call someone “sir” mostly when you don’t know them or they are, well, of a certain age.

The thing is, and I’m guessing you may be this way, too, when I look in the mirror I don’t see grey hair. Honestly. It does come out grey in photos but I figure that’s just the way these camera phones take a picture.