Snooty People, Kind Persons And Giving Praise Elita Sohmer Clayman

The word commend means extol, laud, praise. Three nice words to explain what commend means. I have always liked to commend people that go out of their way to be kind to me. It can be a secretary or receptionist in a doctor’s office, it can be a receptionist in the hair salon, it can be a customer service representative at a department store, and it can be someone in India or the Philippines answering your problem for your computer. I use to have a theory that if the first voice you hear is pleasant, then the doctor will be nice too. Most of the time, my theory is correct. Once in a while, I am wrong and the secretary/receptionist is the nicer one. That does not happen often. I often reward these nice ladies with a stretch pull-on fresh water pearl colored bracelet. I keep a supply on hand and present them one when they have been extraordinarily kind to me.

I called up one time at such an office and the lady was very nice, but the doctor, wow, was some obnoxious fellow. So then I was wrong. However, I can usually tell by the first conversation with the first representative of the office I encounter.

There are some very delightful people working in the doctor’s offices I go to. Their names are varied but each and every one of them is kind in their own way. There is Angie, Shelli, Melanie, Keisha, Theresa, Debra, Debby,Taryn, Julie, Sherrie, Amy, Juanita, Janet, Carolyn, Jodie and Jill. Debby is the assistant in my dental office and she makes going there not a chore, she makes it as pleasant as it can be going to the dentist which many people do not like doing There is an ultrasound technician, I go to at a radiology place and her name is Jo and if you have to have a test done, she is the ultimate in kindness, competence and caring.

Fifty years ago, when I was young and had a good job and made a fine salary for a young woman of those times; I liked to shop in a department store here in Baltimore called Schleisners. It was a one store operation and they were known for their beautiful ladies’ clothing, shoes, purses and some costume high class jewelry. They did not sell furniture, books, men’s clothing, home objects, and just mainly women’s attire. They were also known for their snooty salesgirls. They had the clerks dress up like they were working in a designer store and the salespeople had this uppity attitude towards the customers. They would see a young woman like me and think she probably does not have enough money to buy this purchase and she is wasting my time. Little did they know, I did have the money to afford the clothing and the shoes.

One day my Aunt Jean came to visit and she had on this gorgeous pair of silver leather shoes and high heeled too. I admired them and she told me they were made to order at Schleisners and you had to pay for them before they ordered them and I thought I am going there tomorrow. So tomorrow after work on a Thursday night, when they were open late (not like every night now days) I went there and went to the shoe department. I always dressed nicely because I had a very high profile job and dealt with some big executives of huge grocery chain stores. She snootily looked at me and said “these shoes are very expensive; they cost thirty-five dollars (which was a lot in 1957). I guess you do not want them now.” So I snootily said, “I will take two pairs, one in silver leather and one in gold leather.” Her mouth fell open, her attitude changed and I paid for them in full right then and there. At that moment, I was elevated in her obnoxious mind because she must have thought, “wow, she is a rich young woman, two pairs.” She was calculating her commission at that moment too.

Eventually, Schleisners went out of business and some of it was due, they said, because their sales force all had this sickening attitude.

In life too, you meet snooty, haughty, stuck-up people in all walks of life. There used to be in a hair salon I went to, a woman who bragged that her husband got haircuts in New York City at a special salon for twenty-five dollars a cut and he had to take a train back and forth to get there. Behind her back, everyone said the same thought, that he probably had a girlfriend there and did two things while in NYC, had a haircut and his time with her.

People of worth, whether you have money or not have money, need not brag about spending large sums of currency to try and impress others. Others will be more impressed if a person has a sweet attitude, is interested in saying nice things and inquires about your family or you and remembering something small about a person is also a very profound and admirable way to becoming a likeable human being. Mom use to say “if you cannot say something nice, say nothing at all.”

I saw this on the internet. It is a lot of words, but excellent thoughts.

You may shoot me with your words

You may cut me with your eyes

You may kill me with your hatefulness

But like the air outside, I will always rise.

I may add that not only will you rise, you will persevere, you will attain all that is good and most of all you will be proud of yourself, because you are genuinely nice, happily pleasant and kind from ‘top to toe’, even if you are not wearing expensive silver or gold custom made shoes.

So, I in my gold and silver fancy and expensive shoes made for me at Schleisners uppity department store went walking in them and I felt quite ‘rich’ like the salesperson thought I was because I ordered two pairs of this costly footwear. I was really the same person when I walked out after they arrived, as I was before I walked in to receive my purchase. As it is said “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”. I as the recipient of the beholder’s eye was still Elita, age twenty-three and did not change because I bought two pairs of custom made shoes. I was still ‘nice, kind, considerate’ me and she still was who she was, a snooty clerk in a fancy environment. She did not change after the sale; I did not change before or after the purchase. The amount of the purchase in her mind made me, the buyer different. I was the same and she was the same. My ‘same’ was higher class than hers.

Always remember, the way you talk, shows more about you than the way you dress or even the job you do. You can always be supreme in any job and the way you present yourself is how you shine.