Saturday's are always rough, especially with disrespectful people

Saturday's are always rough, especially with disrespectful people

By Ray Hanania

Norman Wait Harris (N.W. Harris) founder and president of N.W. Harris & Co., Harris Trust & Savings Bank (later Harris Bank) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The work week is rough but Saturdays are even worse. Seriously. Even though I get to sleep a little late, I wake up to Saturday morning cartoons and several episodes of my favorite series King of Queens with Leah Remini and what's his name -- just joking, Kevin James (come on, two first names?)

But once that's over, and I make breakfast for the family, it's out and about to do my rounds which consists of certain very specific things. Post Office. Then the Bank. Then maybe Best Buy to just browse the computer equipment and new movies. I don't buy movies there. I buy them online at Apple and watch them on Apple TV.

Yet, it's at both the Post Office and the bank where I always have the same hassles. And it's all because of inconsiderate people.

Take the post office at 150th and LaGrange Road in Orland Park. It has a huge parking lot. There's rarely a problem finding parking, although on Saturday when everyone is bumper-to-bumper on LaGrange Road, parking can be tight.

But tight or not, there are always a bunch of morons who just don't want to park. They can't wait. They need to jump in front of the line, push you aside, make your life inconvenient so they can save a few seconds. So, they park their big assed Vans and Trucks along the Yellow Painted curb -- that means NO PARKING, and then step inside the U.S. Post Office to mail their letters and even wait in line to buy stamps or ask stupid questions.

And you what I have noticed, the people who park along the curb illegally in front of the Post Office causing traffic jams in the parking lot and creating dangerous encounters with cars trying to squeeze past their fat ugly trucks and vans and big boats (Do people really still drive 1990s Cadillacs?)

Those people should be ticketed. They should be punished. Why not put a Police Traffic Camera there and start recording license plates of cars that pull up and wait for 10s of minutes along the curb, creating parking lot havoc?

I can support that kind of Police Traffic Camera.

And once I check the mail, drop off some mail going out -- yes, I still like to mail bills using the U.S. Post Office and stamps -- I am off to Harris Bank. BMO, they call it. Some British company bought them up just like a British company bought up Amoco. Is anything American any more?

My favorite bank stop is at 143rd and 82nd Avenue. That Harris Bank Branch, at 8150 W. 143rd Street, is phenomenal. They have the best employees. They are all so polite. Considerate. They just want to help. And you can never be a hassle for them no matter what you ask. Deposit this. Withdraw this. Can you give me $300 in all fives?

Not a problem. They're all women, too, by the way and everyone of them is super polite.

You could turn that place into a coffee shop and I'd hang out there the employees are so courteous. GIVE THOSE PEOPLE A RAISE, please.

And then I drive by the coin store at the other end of Orland Park, at 159th just west of Harlem to check out some old coins. I love coins. My son loves coins. And when I'm done, I drive to the Harris Bank at 8400 West 159th Street. I think this is one of BMO's "main" banks.

So I walk in and the two ladies are chatting with each other. Loudly. Or maybe they just have loud voices. So I get in the line area. I'm the only one there. And I stop at the line and wait for one of them to say "Can I help you?"

Should I be rude and just push my way to the counter if no one is there? No. I wait until I am asked to come to the counter. I'm a glutton for punishment.

One of them finally says  tells me to step up to the counter. But it's not polite. And I ask the question that must have just ruined her day.

"Can I buy some rolls of coins. JFK Half Dollars? Gold Dollars?"

The woman looked at me like I was an alien, with that sour puss look that people with bad attitudes always seem to have. I could almost see her head doing that swivel thing of "You want what?"

And she looks at me like I'm nuts.

"Rolls of coins" I repeat. I collect them. I'm about to tell her I'm not just some bum off the street. I have several accounts at this foreign-owned Bee-Mo bank. But before I can assure her I am a customer lady, not some riff-raff off the street.

She blurts out rudely, "We don't have any rolls. No. We don't."

I look at her like, maybe I should explain exactly what a freaking bank does. This is a Bank, isn't it? I start thinking. And before I can blurt out the declarative question, she turns to her chat-buddy and says, "We don't have rolls of coins, do we?"

Oh, now you're basically saying you really don't know if you have rolls of coins and have to ask the other mean-faced lady at the other clerk window. What? For support?

"I didn't order any. I don't get a lot of customers who ask for them," the other mean-faced lady says.

Oh I'm sorry. Did the bank make you work through lunch or something. Taking out your anger on me? Is that a Canadian thing just because we can't get over the fact that Canada became a refuge for pot-smoking draft dodgers back in the 1960s? More than 50 years ago? You keep a grudge that long? The Bank of Montreal (BMO) hasn't owned you that long, I want to scream. They just bought you a few years ago and this is what they did to my neighborhood bank?

BMO Harris Bank needs to clean house at 159th Street. Those employees should see what it's like in the unemployment line. And as for the employees at 151st and 52nd Avenue in orland Park, those employees should be given a pay raise and promotions. They should be running both branches. If they did, I wouldn't get attitude with my bank statement.

You can take that to the bank!

(Ray Hanania is an award winning former Chicago City Hall reporter and columnist. Reach him at rghanania@gmail.com.)

Orland Park's ethnic diversity comes out at Taste of Jerling event

Orland Park's ethnic diversity comes out at Taste of Jerling event

A woman came up to me who has been reading my columns since the 1980s said she has been living in Orland Park more than 35 years, and that during that time "It really has changed."

I was at the Jerling Junior High school "Taste of Jerling" event which featured food samplings from 17 ethnic groups, including "United States," which I thought was cute.

"When we first moved here, it was all White. All Irish, some Poles and Italians and maybe a few Koreans," she said. "Now there are so many Arabs, Mexicans and Asians. Indians. It's really changed."

We talked. She wasn't being racist or bigoted. She was just remarking about the reality of Orland Park that the community had changed, and become more diversified. And in truth, she was right. Orland Park has changed over the years. I noted that I moved in 30 years ago, too, and jokingly said, "It seems like there are more and more White people living here, don't you think?"

I was being facetious, of course. In a nice way. I mentioned that when I moved in, people stayed int heir homes and you didn't hear or see them. Now, as the population has become more and more diverse, you see more and more White people rising up and speaking out about it.

Maybe for some, this would be an uncomfortable conversation. But it was genuine. The woman I spoke with honestly was not being racist, and neither was I. She was just noting a fact. And she was so excited to see all the different cultures and taste their foods which were on display in the Jerling Gymnasium Friday night.

The event was held to celebrate the "rich cultural and ethnic diversity" of Jerling and the community. There were 17 ethnic groups represented at the Taste of Jerling. China, Croatia, France, Greece, India, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Palestine, Phillpines, Poland, Serbia and the United States.

I told my wife, who is Jewish, that I was proud to see three Arab cultures represented, Jordan, Palestine and Morocco.

Sandburg students joined in to provide some ethnic entertainment. Students performed traditional dances from Lithuania, Mexico and India.

It was really nice to see all the parents and the kids attend to show support. Each of the food displays included some ethnic artifacts that represented their culture. Some of the kids did extra-credit work and completed a survey of each display and wrote down something important about what they learned from the ethnic cultural displays. One student wrote down, "In their culture, they give away wives." And he wasn't talking about my ethnic group. Apparently, the host of one of the ethnic groups had said that in their country, women are not allowed to chose their husbands and the wives and chosen for the husbands.

It's not a racist thing to say, I thought. It is a fact. A fact in several of the cultures. The reality of our world. Why shouldn't kids know that?

Of course, as a Baby Boomer, it's hard to identify with today's young kids Their world is so much different from my world. But I can identify with the adults.

I wanted to explain to the woman who observed that it appeared that Orland Park has changed with so many new ethnic and cultural groups moving in, that the reality is that the numbers don't support that conclusion.

I understand why, though. Arabs, for example, are among the ethnic group that has moved into Orland Park over the past 30 years. Most are Christian Arabs, something many Americans don't even realize exists (especially based on how Americans ignore the plight of Christians in Israel and the Arab World). But many are Muslim and some of the Muslim women where Hijabs, head coverings that are very similar to the head coverings Polish women would wear in my old neighborhood on Chicago's South East Side. So they stand out, even though there are only a few of them. They appear like there is an invasion, even though there are really not that many.

Darker skinned cultures, too, have increased. And again, even though there are really not many, they stand out. Years ago when the community was nearly all White, culture was not noticeable. That's what I had meant by how there seems to be more White people today than before. It's not until you get diversity that you actually start to see everyone. Some, more than others, even if the numbers don't match the perceptions.

Here are some numbers about Orland Park's diversity.

The population, according to the 2012 U.S. Census, is 57,392.

86.1 % of that population is White. That's a big population number, folks.

1.7 % are African American. While that is negligible, it is noticeable.

6.2 % are Hispanic.

4.9 % are Asian.

That leaves 1.1 percent of "Other," which according to the U.S. Census which does not include "Arabs."

Has Orland Park really changed that much over the past 35 years?

Not really. And not enough.

(Ray Hanania is an award winning former Chicago City Hall reporter. Reach him on his website at www.TheMediaOasis.com.)

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For more on diversity, visit www.TheArabDailyNews.com