Late one night a friend and I decide to get something to eat. As we’re in fairly small country town our options are fairly lmited. We pass by a fish and chip shop that’s only be opened for a couple of weeks. Its ment to be open for another 45 minutes. When we enter there’s no other customers and no staff behind the counter. After a few minutes of awaiting.
Me: hello!
We hear noises from out the back. A guy wanders out not looking happy.
Staff: what?
Me: umm… Hi, can we get (before I can order).
Staff: no, we’re closed.
Me: oh, OK. Your door says your open for at least half an hour.
Staff: no, we’re shut. Leave now.
Friend: look if your shut you might want to turn the sign to closed and lock the door as we’ve been here 5 minutes and could have taken whatever we want.
Staff: LEAVE NOW! We’re closed and don’t serve you in-bred thieves like you. If anything is missing I’ll call the cops. Now leave!
We leave in shock knowing that the shop won’t last long if that’s the way locals are treated and decide to complain the next day when hopefully the owner or another staff member us working. We find a kebab shop that’s more then willing to serve us. On the way home we pass the shop to see fire engines just pulling up and smoke and flames pouring out of the shop. The staff member standing in nothing but his boxers and a woman in just a jacket. It turns out the guy was having sex with his girlfriend in the back and something had caught fire. Luckily no other businesses where damaged and no one was hurt but the shop was a complete loss. I guess karma really is a b****.

When my mother was little, her family had to flee their home due to advancing communist troops. On their way to the seaport, they came across some relatives; a young widow and her two small children, carrying only two cloth bags of clothes.
My grandmother: “Ha, look at those idiots, leaving with so little, and letting their horses free!”
The refugee ship would not allow my mother’s family on with all of their furniture, tractor, horses, etc, so they returned home. They arrived to find all their remaining posessions gone, and soon the communists took what little they had left, and forced them to flee once more, with nothing. Soon enough, my grandparents starved, leaving their children to fend for themselves. As for the widow and chldren who gave up all their stuff: they made it safely to the west and prospered.

(While visiting a zoo on a weekend trip with my family, we are looking at a particular animal when my brother-in-law and I overhear a dad tell his kid (who looked to be about four or five), also looking at the same animal not far from where we were standing, this:)

Dad: Don’t keep looking at him, [Kid]. He’ll steal your soul.

(The animal in question was a red panda (not an animal with a reputation for being scary in the slightest), who was simply roaming around his enclosure without looking at any of us. The dad and kid then left, leaving us rather baffled and amused over the dad’s odd statement to his kid over the harmless red panda at the same time.)

(I have submitted this before but this version has more details)

I am about 19 or 20 years old and live with my dad and older brother. My mom has passed away a while ago. My parents have been working at fairs for as long as I can remember. It has been kind of a family business.

I am helping out with breaking down our carousel. It is currently summer and it has gotten dark out. As we are almost finished, I try to see what is left to do. Suddenly, my dad yells at me to stop standing around or something in that manner. This is not the first time he has yelled at me and my brother is not much better.

I am so upset that I start crying. We are located right behind a church. I go to the other side and sit down at the fountain there. It is after midnight, and the streetlights have gone out. This happens in some places to reduce light pollution. They are turned off from midnight till 5 am.

I sit there for a while. I can see some lights from the other side of the church but neither my dad nor my brother come to where I am. Later, I see my dad’s truck drive away.

I am still really upset and sit there till around 1 am. I don’t want to stay there, but my only transportation is gone. I decided to walk home.

It was a bit scary, but I managed to get home safely around 5:30 am. The next day my dad and brother said they searched for me, but I didn’t believe it. If they were, they would have found me. That was the first time I ended up walking home, but it was not the last time.

My friend, her 11 year old daughter and I went to a local village today for their scarecrow festival, a tradition that we’ve been enjoying for about 7 years. Before getting started, we went to one of the restaurants for lunch. Now it’s important to note we didn’t go last year due to the weather.

We arrive a little after 11 and are seated right away. The waitress brings our menus and takes our drink orders. When she returns:

Me: I’ll take chicken salad on a croissant with American cheese and mayo on the side please.
Friend: I’d like roast beef with horseradish sauce and a bowl of French onion soup
Daughter: I’d like a house salad with ranch dressing and chicken fingers

The waitress leaves and comes back a few minutes later:

Waitress: Where did you see roast beef?
Friend: On the menu.

It turned out that they had new menus that they started today, and the one my friend ordered from was the old menu. Friend changes her order to a crab cake sandwich. No problem.

Food comes out.

Daughter: This isn’t ranch dressing.

Friend and I try it and we both agree politely that it’s not.

Waitress: (bringing out new dressing with an attitude) Try this one.

The ranch was right this time (we’d determined the first one was creamy Italian). I politely remind her about my mayonnaise which she had forgotten.

For the next half forty minutes our waitress ignores us. Doesn’t check to see if everything is ok, doesn’t see if we would like refills. I never get my mayonnaise. She serves the tables around us, since it’s gotten busier now. But she walks right by us and looks right at us but ignores us. We’re finished eating but she doesn’t even come back to take our dirty plates. My friend and I are both getting pissed but she’s keeping it together because her daughter is with us.

Finally, after we’d been there an hour, she FINALLY comes back to our table and asks if we’d like anything else. We say no and that we just want the check and she leaves. Five minutes later:

Waitress: Hey I just wanted to double check. You didn’t anything else right?
Us: No.

Ten minutes after she first asked us she brought our check out and then we had to wait another 5 minutes or so before she took the card to run it and then finally back with the receipt. She got a $2.99 tip on a $60+ check.

We didn’t blame her for the first two things. They were out of her control. But the attitude and the fact that she ignored us for most of our lunch is inexcusable.