"Hello Good morning How you do?"

"Hey, there!" A warm smile spreads across her wrinkled face. She nudges her husband. "George, give the boy some candy." 

The boy stares at his feet. His face is like a stone. He barely looks up, and only gives a faint and incoherent "hello" in response - and only after he is prodded to do so by his sister.

 The cheery face of the elderly woman does not waver. After telling 'George' to give the boy some candy once again, her husband fishes around in his shirt pocket and pulls out the timeless peppermint. 

"Thanks...." the boy mutters, and he walks away. 


Now, doesn't that sound like a very rude little boy? Well, that little boy is my brother. My brother! Jackson! When people try to talk to him, he always looks down and his face goes expressionless. If he answers any questions, he either does not respond, or does it so quietly that no one hears him. Erg!

Well he did that to our elderly neighbor this morning. Our neighbor said, "Good morning!" 

Jack's reply : "gookjkjdmlkjkljorninkjl;kg" in a quiet mumbo jumbo way.

Neighbor: "Well, aren't you going to say 'hello'?"

So my mom took action and made him practice with her on how to cheerfully and loudly answer people when they talk to him! She pretended she was someone coming up to talk to him, and said, "Good morning!" And Jack had to respond nicely and politely each time, as if mom were an elderly person from church or someone.

Now that he has been instructed on how he should speak and act, hopefully at his next opportunity, he will be nice and loud and cheerful. I told him, "Jack, you need to be bubbly! And loud. That's very important when you are talking to old people."

Yep, and that was a lesson on manners today. :)