Yesterday I was at a hold'em pub playing a few hands, when two guys who looked to be in their fifties walked in.
The college kid sitting across from me took one look and his face just crumpled. Said he doesn't get along with middle-aged dudes.
At first I thought, "You don't even know these guys — do you really need to react like that?"
But after playing a few hands with them, I understood exactly why he'd been annoyed on sight.
Eating ramen at the table while playing, then trying to lecture people for no reason (when the college kids around them were obviously way better, lol).
The way they kept crowding in on people, ignoring the dealer, cracking jokes that weren't funny — every little thing was quietly grating.
The finale was smoking right outside the shop (a no-smoking area, since it's the building stairwell).
The manager ran straight over to stop them, and the two of them walked right into the indoor smoking room with their cigarettes still lit.
The staff immediately went around spraying Febreze in the shop... lolol
Anyway, everyone there was thoroughly put off by those guys.
The dealer's line about why adults had shown up at a kids' café was funny enough that it stuck with me.
The bad vibes you pick up from people, accumulated as big data, are rarely wrong.
But when exactly does that instinct about middle-aged guys get formed?
When does a person start going bad, and why, and in what way?