“I’ll be with you shortly,” said the young man at the auto repair shop. He was tall, young, and handsome, and I was sure he was just trying to be helpful. “Thanks,” I replied, “but there’s no need to be insulting!”
At 4’12”, I’ve always been sensitive about my height. Even as a child I was short… er…”staturely deficient.” The strange thing is that people who are tall or “staturely endowed,” always seem to think that perhaps I am not aware of it. “Gee, you’re short!” is often the first observation people share with me. Usually I manage to swallow my initial response (“Duh!”), and opt for the more polite, “Really? I never noticed.”
I once met a man who was exceptionally tall, probably close to 7 feet in height. We met in the cafeteria at the university I was attending and ended up standing in line next to each other. At one point, he looked down at me and said, “Oh, Hi! Gee, I’ve never seen you around here before.” Looking way up and hoping to avoid neck strain, I just smiled and replied dryly, “I wonder why?” I’m not even sure he heard me.
Tall people don’t realize what a difficult world this is for short people. Practically nothing is built with short people in mind. Deli counters at the grocery store, for example. I can ring the bell, wait a few minutes, and the person at the counter thinks that some kid is playing “ding dong ditch” with them. Usually I have to stand on my toes, jump up and down with my arms in the air and holler a bit to get their attention. “Hey! I’m down here.” I try to shop when the counters are likely to be less busy. Otherwise, unless I am feeling really assertive, I end up getting my turn after all of the tall people are finished.