Originally Posted by
Colnago Mixte
Suspicious minds. Elvis was right. Also, many younger people these days have neither manners nor social skills of any kind. TV, video games, smart phones, and their equally-clueless peers teach them nothing useful in this regard.
I guess it's up to us older folks to set a good example. I'm pretty sure I did and said some very rude stuff when I was younger, out of social ignorance and not treating people the way I would like to be treated, so now I have an opportunity to make up for at least some of that. A thick skin helps a lot when doing this.
Here's the thing. These guys, with the exception of the one that smiled and said "no problem," were close to my age, 55, or older. I most often ride by myself. One of the things I do to keep my mind occupied is to make note of the way people respond to my greetings. The path I ride is rarely ever very busy at all. I may encounter on average one rider per mile. Pedestrians even more rarely. I smile and nod at or verbally greet most of the people I encounter. The older white males riding expensive road bikes seem to be the least happy as a demographic.