The "thank you" business⁶

Three or four days ago I went to Woolworth’s to buy a bag. I was standing in line behind a little girl around six or seven years old. She was with her brother, who was about four or five.

The little boy said to his sister, “Jeannie,” — or something like that — “if you have ten cents, can you give it to me?”

She said, “No!”

Then the boy said, “Didn’t you hear me say ‘if’, ‘if’, ‘if’? I said, ‘If you have, if you have!’”

Again she said, “No!”

Then he said, “Damn you!”

The girl bought a roll of thick string. It came to $1.36. She only had $1.30. So when she gave $1.30 to the lady at the register, the lady at the register said, “O my God, O my God,” looking at the manager. How could she give the girl the string when the actual price was six cents more?

Immediately I took out a dollar and gave it to the little girl, so she was very happy. The lady at the register said to her, “Say ‘thank you’ to the gentleman.” But the girl didn’t say anything. Then from the change I gave a dime to the little boy. He grabbed it from me. The woman behind the register, who was about 23 or 25 years old, said to him, “Little one, say ‘thank you’.” He also wouldn’t say it. So the woman said to the little girl, “What kind of parents do you have? I am ashamed of you.” Then she said to me, “On their behalf I am thanking you. It’s a shame that parents don’t teach their children the ‘thank you’ business!”