modern manners or the lack thereof

I believe that good manners help everyone to find life more pleasant.  I'm not really very worried if my young grandchildren cannot use a fish knife, but I do like them to know that chewing at the table with mouth wide open while talking is neither a pleasnt sight nor sound for everyone else.  Life is smoother with a bit of respect and courtesy.

However, three times lately, I've been astounded by the actions of someone on the train.  I wonder whether this is perhaps a way to use the time spent on the journey,or whether the traveller is quite bored with a fifteen minute train trip to the city.  Each one of these actions was carried out by members of a particular ethnic group,so I wonder also if my revulsion was to something that is not revolting in their background.  I know I wasn't the only person who was not happy on the train.

The first occasion was the mildest.  One young girl spent the entire trip applying her makeup.  She tweezed her eyebrows, applied foundation, lipstick, mascara, the works.  Then she took off her shoes, put her feet up on the seat opposite, which is an offence in the train, and smoothed moisturiser up and down her legs.

Last Sunday I was in the train on the way to church when I heard, "click, click."  An elderly woman of the same ethnic group was clipping her fingernails and blowing the clippings on the floor.   I should be grateful I suppose that she kept her shoes on.

I worked in the city on one day and was glad to sit down on the train on the way home.   I looked at the seat over the aisle when a young man dropped his shoes and socks on the floor.  He hoiked his bare foot  up on the seat next to him and proceeded to pull strips of  dead skin off his toes and feet and hold them up to examine them!  One foot done and then it was the turn of the next  foot.  When he had finished, he too trimmed his finger nails .  He didn't use scissors but the fingers which had just been used on his feet went into his mouth.

Now where did I hide the fish knives?