I just witnessed the rudest thing!

Lame.

The self centeredness of others really bothers me. I would have been furious. I know how difficult it is for my MIL to get out and about, but it's so good for her mental health.

While I understand that you are upset for the old couple being asked to move, why did they sit at that table in the first place? Didn't you say that the woman had put her number on it indicating that it was taken? So do the older people just get a pass to take other people's tables?

Table for four and three people? Sounds like an opportunity to make some new friends I'm a Pollyanna that way.

I would have thought them sitting there to begin with to be the rude part. But you have since posted that the number was not easily seen. Two rudes do not make a right. The gracious thing would have been for the lady to quietly walk up and pull her number off the table and move to a different one.

I would have offered the rude woman my table. I'm passively agressively nice that way.

Did anyone else ever join the first woman?

I go to Corner Bakery about once a week. I'm going to play advocate for the first lady's team here. She put her number on the table, THEN went to get her drink. Clearly, trying to juggle the number and her drink, and whatever else she was carrying would have been more than she wanted to deal with. (Did she leave anything else at the table?) Also, she may have been a bit compulsive about the part of the dining room that she likes to sit in. When I go to my closest one by myself, I like to sit at one of the two-person tables by the window. It's my preference unless the sun is hitting the table. When I have to sit at a two-person table next to the half-wall, I feel a bit closed in, but it's my second choice. It's also a bit dark there. I don't like the two-person tables that are lined up along that long bench. I just don't like sitting side-by-side with strangers. I go to Corner Bakery for a nice lunch, the Black Currant iced tea, and to spend some time reading. Now, I wouldn't have kicked the older couple out of the booth because of the walker. But, if there wasn't a walker, I would have said, "I'm sorry, but I was sitting here." and pointed at the number. The couple should have noticed a number in the holder anyway because they would have had to put their number in it.

Anyhow, it's possible that the first woman is a bit OCD. She may be a regular who prefers to sit at the same table every time she goes there and she may have gotten a bit freaked out to get back to her table to find someone else sitting there. You said it was too loud for you to say anything to her, therefore it was too loud for you to hear what was said between the parties. Maybe she did offer to let them sit there, but she needed her number back so she could get her food. When asking for it, maybe they insisted that they should be the ones to move. She's kind of stuck if they start getting up and she can't get her number so she can move to another table. She has no choice but to wait. Elderly people can be really stubborn and difficult to reason with. Often, the just do what they're going to do and nothing will stop them. If they decided that they were to be the ones to move, it's likely she was powerless in the situation.

What I'm saying is that you're putting an interpretation on what you saw. However, it's entirely possible that the whole situation went down in a different way.

That is so rude! I always think that it could be my grandfather/grandmother. I hate when people are rude to anyone (men, women, kids) but I especially can't stand when people are rude to elderly people. I see how hard it is for people to get around when they are older and can't stand when people treat them like that.

This story makes me so sad. How awful. Rude and unkind.