Mean old German women

OK, any experiences with 'Mean ole Ladies' here?

I have been here five years and am still amused (although at first I was just shocked) at the scary Grannies here.

Coming from the South U.S (I don't know how it is everywhere else) I was always accustomed to sweet Grandmothers who smile at you when you smile at them and seem to appreciate that you are respectful towards them.

But what is wrong with some of the women here?!!

I have had the following:

I have been pushed out of line not once, but twice by elderly women.
Yelled at for daring to produce human offspring instead of just buying a puppy (really)
Seen an old women curse like a sailor at the top of her lungs because of "Auslanders"

and what is with the evil eye you sometimes get for smiling at anyone over 70?

I have met some sweet ones as well, and they really made an impression on me because of the outrageously mean ones.

This generation experienced hardships and war..could this be an influence? I really wonder. And I am not the only foreigner to notice this. I have had British and French friends say the same..

Related previous TT topic: Stupid German rules and women who complain all the time

Don't take it personally, just tell them to grow up. And push them back out of line.

You'll be posting from Stadelheim prison if the Polizei catches you smiling at somebody and it isn't an offical "smile-at-people" day. Last one was on the 18 August 1834. Sold out by all accounts.

might be that. Most of them had a really hard childhood, and probably lost there
love of live through that and never got it back.

I wonder where the do the lynching?

hehehe..I had to stifle a laugh (sitting at my desk not working) reading that!

What about the funny things the elderly ladies tell you:

"You will get a bladder infection if you sit on a cold step!" ..maybe true, but who cares!?

My ex-landlord (5 years ago) had gone around the twist a bit. She thought the African tenants under me brought back a voodoo demon from Africa. But I guess that is another post entirely.

I find most of them perfectly nice, actually.

That's because you're so mean!

I get pushed out of the way in queues by little old ladies all the time, and I'm six foot five. I've also had a sweet looking old granny come up to me in the street when I was putting up a poster and say ' You wouldn't get away with that if Hitler was still in power'!!!

could be, actually

nah, i usually smile at them
i've even been known to utter the occasional "grüss gott"

God I try that! Hmmm...I even give up my seat and get kicked!

ok, just kidding.

Of course there are nice elderly women. But it is my observation that there are more 'mean' ones here than what I personally have been accustomed to.

I really think the war and ensuing hardships had something to do with that.

They are definitely not as nice as the UK grannies (even though they mistrust all youngsters these days, but no wonder.) When we got back after Christmas I kept on smiling at old ladies in shops etc and wondered why on earth everyone was looking at me like I was crazy. You just don't do that kind of thing here. So now I glower with them and shove right back in the queue (instead of letting them in as I once did, with no thanks.) They may be old but they don't have an automatic right to be impolite.

However I nearly fainted the day an old lady gave me a thumbs up for driving a right hand drive car!

Now, please tell me why they all decide to go grocery shopping late Saturday afternoon. The best is when they ask to skip the line because they are old and only have a small order, then proceed to order 50g of 15 different kinds of luncheon meat. Gotta love 'em.

gah, nadia. i was tricked into this in my local butcher's the other day. the old bat did indeed then order small amounts of nearly everything in the shop. last time i come over all nice and gentlemanly.

Do you guys know why the old people carry their sticks? To hit us when getting on U-bahn or Bus.

Fortunatelly the old men here are not so bad.

One old man let me in front of him in the shop because I only had bread (or because I had deep cleavage that day):-)

I always get yelled at when on my bike, best thing to do I find is just let loose in English with the most foul and offensive insults you can conjure. They're usually too shocked/lost/perplexed to have any sort of comeback.

good definition of Germany:

Lachen Verboten!!!

My apartment building is full of nice friendly old ladies who take in our parcel deliveries, always say hello, and even hold doors open. Thank goodness, otherwise I would have a very negative impression of older German women.

I find that cranky ones hang out at the local supermarket waiting to ambush people from behind with their shopping trolleys. I am sick of being bumped into without warning and then being yelled at for the privilege. I had one lovely experience with an old bag who complained that I took too long to move my bike past her outside the store. I hadn't even been there for one second and she went right off. I had been practicing for this moment..."und ich wünsche Ihnen auch einen schönen Tag...du alte Hexe!" came out with good effect. It seems she objected more to my using "du" rather than by my calling her names...sigh... I have asked my husband (who is German) why it is that old Bavarian women seem to like to involve themselves in other peoples lives in such an agressive manner...and he said he hadn't noticed this at all!!! Is this just something they save up for other women?? It can't always be against foreigners as the aggression often happens before they had had a chance to talk and find out .

Must admit I haven't experienced much of this. Maybe they do generally save it up for younger women.

I wonder what I´m gonna be like when I´m old.
Hopefully sunbathing on the beach in Croatia.

Maybe for Bavaria, but not for Germany at all ;

My theory for the elderly woman (developed during private talks with some of them):

They've had a hard time, after the war. Now they start suffering from dementia, and are only remembering these old times. And they do not understand the world anymore, everything is so fast now, the order, the old system, has gone. So they feel bitter.