Ask Amy: Stranded bicyclist has an opinion on the coldest generation

Dear Readers: A recent query from “Perplexed in Suburbia” asked why people under the age of 50 don’t return friendly “hellos.”

I posited that this might be a regional issue but also asked readers if my generation has raised a generation of “rude-niks.”

The responses flowed in, and I am sharing a representative sample.

While every theory suggested is valid, I think it’s vital to understand that we never really know what others are going through, which is a great reason to be friendly, regardless of the reaction.

Dear Amy: One Sunday I was riding my bike far out on a bike path, towing my toddler behind me, when I got a flat tire.

I started walking us toward the car, tight to the far side of a wide path.

There was a definite age graduation in the (all-male) bikers who passed us. Forty- and 50-year-olds stopped and made sure we were OK.

Thirtysomethings asked if I was OK as they zoomed past.

Twentysomethings were visibly and verbally annoyed at us for existing.

– Home Safe

Dear Home Safe: When/if those twentysomethings have children, they’ll be much more concerned with the plight of a stranded parent.

Dear Amy: The other day, my wife and I were walking on the sidewalk and met a group of three high school kids.

We said hello (as we often do) and, as often happens, for the most part they ignored us.

However, just after they passed us, we overheard one boy say to one girl, “Why did they talk to us?”

She responded, “They were being nice, dumb*ss.”

Apparently, she gets it, but her friends don’t.

– Also From Suburbia

Dear Also: The cluelessness is very “on brand.”

Dear Amy: At our family’s rural retreat, strangers wave vigorously from their cars and trucks when encountered on the roads.

In our closely spaced prosperous cul-de-sac in the D.C. suburbs, every encounter is a chilly non-event.

I’d say the dynamic isn’t generational. People in urban neighborhoods don’t want to risk taking on new relationships too carelessly … they ain’t got the time! But out in ruralville, loneliness is the threat.

– Dave in Bethesda, MD

Dear Dave: I hear you.

Dear Amy: I live in a city high-rise, and I have noticed that most young people getting on the elevator behave as though there’s no one else in there! But I don’t think it’s the way they were raised.