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# Stand Up
- URL: https://www.longspoon.uk/stand-up-2/
- Published: 2026-08-30T19:55:50.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-30T19:55:50.000Z
- Author: Lapérouse

Dunno if this still exists as instilled etiquette but, as a male, I have always given up my seat on the bus for someone elderly and frailer than I. Is that a rule? But the other day I was on a bus and a younger man of African descent, I guess, stood up for me and gave me his seat. Is it an international law? How do I feel about this at 76 and one half years of age? Not best pleased. I am NOT old.

Ten years ago while attempting to board a bus among a throng of schoolboys I heard one of them say: “Let the old boy on first.” I looked round for the old boy and there wasn’t one. Was he referring to ME? He surely was – so I decked him. The sauce of the lad.

Then yesterday while queueing for the country market in the church hall I took the last available seat. Almost instantly an older woman joined the queue. I had a go at standing up with my arthritic knee, but she insisted that I keep the seat as she preferred to stand. We examined this assertion for the next five minutes. Luckily the hall door opened and we all strode in. The pursuit of home-made cake and jams took over.

On the bus I usually sit in the priority seats, c'mon I have a hearing aid, though I will give up my seat if guilt-tripped. Just the sight of someone struggling is enough. To stand or not to stand? The older I get the more wobbly I am on this issue.