[piasa]

Waiting in line, a young blonde mother dropped one of her baby’s possessions. I asked my wife to retrieve it, by now assuming the mother wouldn’t take kindly to me. She didn’t say thank you.

Could be she was a feminist and was offended and in her eyes she may have thought the man arrogantly ordered his wife pick it up rather than doing so himself.

Maybe she was mute.Not likely but possible.

It could be sheas havng a very bad, worrisome day and forgot.

It could also be that she did repond, just not verbally. In the midwest a lot of people will just give a nod to say thanks or to acknowledge you, perhaps a holdover from older days when people wore hats- they would tip their hat. We could go a full day working in a group to shingle a roof or pick a field or hunting and not utter a single word, just using hand or facial gestures, because we'd pay attention to see if someone was out of shingles or cartons and needed resupplied, or needed help getting over a fence and would just get it for them or take their gun before they said a word. If you are accustomed to it you see it, second nature, but someone who isn't accustomed to nonverbal communication could easily miss the subtle gestures.

[Cronos]

1. the feminist bit maybe -- but it's still incredibly rude not to thank another person to do it -- she could have thanked the wife and given the husband a nasty stare

2. Maybe she was a mute? Maybe -- but even mutes would nod or give a sign-language "thank you"

3. Having a bad day -- still not an excuse for a simple thank you. In Swedish it's one word "thak"

It could be a lot of things, but I see this as a British guy who goes to a foreign country without bothering to pick up a few words of the local language and thinking the foreigners will speak English and not bothering to find out a bit about the culture.

I've known white Brits to do the same thing and be equally surprised

This guy wonders why and wonders if his skin color had something to do with it - a reasonable , if wrong, guess.