The other week at the one (Thai) restaurant where I work now, my one (male) (Guatemalan) coworker hustled out quickly from the kitchen to deliver a rack of freshly-washed glasses and was like, "Hola, Senor!" ("Hello, Mister!"), to which I immediately replied, "Gracias, Senor!" ("Thank you, Mister!") as he was wheeling around to go back into the back into the kitchen, and I don't even think we looked at each other or thought about what we were doing or saying as we said and did that, it was all just so automatic and routine as something that we all just do, and then I noticed that this one (slim) (late 20s) (brownish-white) app delivery driver in a winter cap and coat who was sitting at a table waiting for his order to come up had turned his head and was just looking in our direction, with amusement.
And, I realized that he was probably (Mexican), and had overheard us.
"Aqui nosotros llamamos Senor, siempre," I was like ("Here we call each other 'Mister,' always"), and he just seemed vaguely amused, happy to have anything at all lively happening in his life.
So slowly have we sunk into idiosyncracy, that our behavior has now become peculiar to outsiders. And, I was the instigator.
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