Senile Delinquency

I have just got back from a trip to my local shops (oh, yeah, life on the edge, that's me, no fear....) where an old guy tried to push in front of me in the queue for the till. He didn't get away with it, because I saw him coming and strategically positioned myself to block his gambit.

So he got in behind me, muttered a few things under his breath for 30 seconds or so, and strared hitting me, punching me in the small of the back. I turned round and asked him to stop, and he offered me outside!!! He must've been into his 80s, and appeared to be sober, or at least I couldn't smell booze on hime. I suggested, without being abusive, that he might want to consider the possible consequences of this, calm down and behave himself, and leave me alone, and he promptly stated that he wasn't afreid of me and repeated his offer.

I further suggested that he was a silly old sod and again asked him to leave me alone, which fortunately he did this time , though contineing to mutter under his breath in a way that suggested he was not being entirely complimentary to me, my parentage, or anything else to do with me.

Had the situation developed, I would, I confess, have been at a loss as to how to deal with it. On the one hand nobody wants to start knocking pensioners around, on the other I was being physically assaulted. Bad enough that I had to infer a threat of violence to dissuade the bugger; if he'd persisted would I have been right to back the threat up with actual argy-bargy, or should I have let the bloke hit me without response. I suppose if push had come to shove, I'd have had to defend myself, but I was seriously glad that there would have been plenty of bystanders to have witnessed what had led to my aciton. I hope I would have avoided physical abuse, but, as I say, I will not allow violence perpetrated no me to go unchallenged. I do not go around punching other people and consider myself justified in demanding that they do not do so to me.

I con't believe i'd have hit the poor old sod, but I may well have resorted to pushing hime away in order to prevent his hitting me! Suppose he'd been pushed over and actually injured himself. Cue assault charges and court case against me for something someone else caused.

I really must try and get rid of the big neon sign saying 'victim' which apparently floats about 2 feet above my head at all times, as I have an unfortunate habit of attracting this sort of behaviour, in the same way that the nutter on the bus always goes out of his way to set by me. I am fed up with the way the world treats me . Just you all wait till I get my AK47....