This happened when I was eleven years old, in the sixth grade. I’m also female.

There was a girl at school, who wasn’t exactly the nicest. For name privacy, let’s just call her “Jessie”.

On this particular day, we had a substitute teacher, but that didn’t stop Jessie from being rude to me, calling me names, and even going as far as throwing stones at me, at recess!

During gym class, we were playing a game, called “soccer baseball”. We were waiting in line for our turn to go out to the field, to play. I can’t remember how this happened, but somehow, she brought up how there were worms on the ground. Thinking worms were cool, I picked one up to look at it. This brought on her saying I was a worm eater. What the heck, right? She wouldn’t let it go for the rest of gym class.

Finally, at the end of the day, the substitute teacher was treating all the best behaved that day to some candy. Guess what that candy was? Yep, gummy worms. She handed them out to the best behaved students, which included myself. I felt overjoyed, because, at the time, and even now, the teacher knew I was trying to be on my best behavior, despite Jessie’s behavior. Of course, that led to Jessie not getting any gummy worms…

I looked at her and said, “See? I do eat worms. This kind!”

I then proceeded to eat one. The glare I received from her was worth it!

(I had this conversation almost identically twice, once with a close friend and once with my dad. Yeah, I don’t know why I told this once, let alone twice either.)

Me: So, I bought some yoghourt before returning to the train to get home but then I had a problem. I was wondering how I would eat it.
Dad/friend (looking incredulous): Didn’t you carry your camping cutlery with you?
Me: Well, what took you 30 seconds, took me 2 hours.

(As I often take daytrips by means of public transport, mostly trains, I indeed invested in a camping set of cutlery so I could eat on the train and not depend on plastics other than the food containers.)

On summer break from college a few years ago I was working at the entrance to the pool/water park of a private recreation center. When members join they are advised that there is a dress code for the center and especially the pool area; everyone who joins must sign an agreement acknowledging that they understand this. Modesty is required, and while most 2 piece swimsuits are fine, string or thong bikinis and men’s Speedo style suits are specifically not allowed. I’d just turned away 2 young women who tried to enter wearing pretty skimpy bikinis; they were actually quite understanding and said they’d go home and change. A middle age, very large and heavy woman who is entering the area loudly comments about how inappropriate their suits are, that they should be ashamed for showing so much skin in an area where there are teenage boys and young children. The girls ignore her and walk away.

A few minutes later another patron with whom I’d been speaking lets out a loud gasp and points out the window overlooking the outdoor area. The woman who made the comment has exited the changing room onto the pool deck and is wearing what appears, at first glance, to be nothing at all! Looking closer, I can see that she is, in fact, barely covered, with 2 small triangles of colored fabric making up the top of her “suit” and the bottom totally hidden except for thin fabric strips hanging from each side.

When told to cover up or leave, she accused us, all of the staff and everyone else in earshot, of fat shaming and insisted she was fine since no one cares what a woman her size looks like and all her “important parts” were covered.

She proceeded to make such a scene that she had to be removed by law enforcement and her membership was subsequently revoked. I later heard that she had filed an unsuccessful lawsuit claiming discrimination and her antics that day were a misguided and inept attempt to prove it.

My mom is deep cleaning a house and calls a hardware store that offers a rentable dumpster bag. This is the whole conversation.

Employee: You looking for the coffee table?

Mom: … I’m sorry, is this [hardware store]?

Employee: Yeah, are you calling about the coffee table?

Mom: No… I was just calling to see if you had any [dumpster bags].

Employee: Nope. *click*

I work in a retail store, one that requires managers and supervisors to do some heavy lifting, on a daily basis we need to be able to move loaded pallets, to unload them by hand as well as be able to move fixtures often on our own. The store is usually manned by a Manager or Supervisor and just one staff member who needs to serve while the Manager does just about everything else.

My morbidly obese brother-in-law decides to apply for a Store Manager position at a sister location, he can barely walk at the best of times.

MIL “(My Name) you have to put in a good word for (BIL) so he can get the job at (Location).”

Me “You’re going for store manager, you know it’s really physical job?”

BIL “Hmmph, I can do a physical job”

Me “Just that you need to be able to lift heavy loads, usually from the top of a loaded pallet and there’s no staff to help”

BIL *Indignant “I’ve been a Store Manager before, I know what has to be done” – He’s had mainly been one in fast food where all he did was sit behind a desk doing paperwork, having the teen staff to do everything else.

He doesn’t get the job – no shock there.

Fast forward a couple of months, he’s coming out of his room carrying a pile of about 10 magazines and notices my son.

BIL “(Son) could you take these out to the bin for me because I can’t handle all the stairs”

Son “Stairs? We don’t have stairs there’s just a step” *he’s frustrated over being made to do things like this all the time by BIL and complains to me about how lazy he is.

BIL “But you don’t understand, these are too heavy for me to carry all the way to the front door (less than 5 metres) and try to keep my balance getting down the step while holding them.”

So much for being able to do physical work, he has to rest after walking to and from the letterbox. It’s also obvious why he keeps losing jobs, he’s lost three in the last couple of years after being there for a few months. He claims that he gets put off due to downsizing and that the location he was at was closing down but have yet to see one close down.