Entertainment at the auction last night

So we're about two hours into the auction I attended last night, where some of my stuff was selling and I was spending the profits as quickly as they came in. (Never fails! :-)

Anyway I get up to take a big item I just purchased out to my truck. Come back and there's an old-timer who had just walked in with his family sitting in my seat holding his grandson. I was very polite and said "Excuse me sir, would you mind letting me have my seat back?"



Holy crap! It was like I hit him with a cattle prod! He jumped out of the seat and wanted to kick my assumption! (Picture the old man from Duck Dynasty. That was about how threatening he looked.)

I said "Really?" and he puffed out his chest and said "Really!" I totally thought he was going to take a swing at me. At his age you know if he swings I've got to take a dive, right? Let him hit me and fall on the floors so I don't accidentally kill him by the act of blocking a punch. He weighed about 150 pounds to my 260. Now he's doing this WITH HIS GRANDSON IN TOW!!!

I am being EXTREMELY polite and non-aggressive when his daughter pulls him to the adjacent seat and gets the row to move down one. The whole auction comes to a screeching halt as people are watching to see what happens next.

Fortunately she got him calmed down, he sat in the seat next to me for a couple of minutes before he decided that was intolerable, jumped up and stormed out not to be seen again. The daughter was VERY apologetic for his actions.

Not sure why I am typing this other than to say I'm not sure what I did, but this is not the first case I've seen lately of tempers flaring unreasonably. Be careful out there!

Burly, you may not actually have done anything. Sometimes, it's just their personality. However, given circumstances (abrupt and violent reaction; daughter and grandson present) and subsequent actions (abrupt leaving), I'd guess a slight mental disorder such as early-onset dementia or (similar) beginnings of Alzheimer's. In this instance, his potential resolution (in his thinking) MAY have been a need to find alternative seating for all of them plus changing his thinking about his present seating. All this while being in a panic about having taken your seat. To you, it's no big deal; but to someone unable to process information quickly and logically and come to a reasoned conclusion, there's a basic "flight or fight" mentality. He chose "fight".

OR - he might have just been an old jerk.

I'm guessing he was just an old jerk!

I was looking for a soft spot to land on the tile floor so I could hit the deck after he swung.

If he breaks his hand on my chin can I be charged with assault? :-) God he just looked so frail!

It's a ripoff of "Hulk smash," and I use it because I get a lot of scrap that I, well...smash!

And I didn't even have an opportunity to look for another seat before he was in my face. I wouldn't have bothered him except my stuff was under his chair. It was over so quick.

It was kind of comical him drawing himself up to his full height and puffing out his chest though. Smh

It can also be an indication of low sugar in a person who is a diabetic. I am one of those people but it is no excuse. Mike

.........and he's probably got a gun or two somewhere-- good thing he didn't seem to have one with him that day.

If I needed a gun to handle that guy I'd have to change my name...

Originally Posted by Scrapette

.........and he's probably got a gun or two somewhere-- good thing he didn't seem to have one with him that day.

...and I never "seem" to have one on me...