Some time ago I read an account written by a visitor to a New Orleans hotel who had just gotten onto the elevator when a man came running down the hall shouting “Hoe dee doe!”. Not being a Louisiana native, he did not realize the man wanted him to “Hold the door.”
I hoe dee doe all the time. I hold the door for others at the bank, supermarket, post office and so on. I always have. It’s a small courtesy that costs me very little and can brighten another’s day.
Reactions are mixed. The most adverse reaction I ever got was from a Little Old Lady in Long Beach, CA when I was stationed there (’69-’72). We were waiting for the bank to open. I was first in line and the Little Old Lady was right behind me.
When the door was unlocked, I pulled it open and stepped aside, allowing the Little Old Lady to precede me. As she walked by me, she hunched up her shoulders, clutched her purse to her bosom and gave me the evil eye, as though I intended to snatch her purse.
Most people appreciate having the door held. Some will thank me, some just nod. Older people seem the least surprised, non-whites the most surprised (I’m white.)
I always feel a bit guilty when the person for whom I’m holding the door speeds up a bit so as not to keep me waiting.
Today I encountered the most interesting reaction in all the years I’ve been holding doors for others. At the post office, I held the door for a late-teens-early-twentyish young lady and got no reaction at all. None. She was texting furiously and never even looked up from her phone as she walked through the held door. Takes all the fun out of it.