(Does that headline grate on you, because you're a 47-year-old aging snowflake and you don't have "peers"? Or is it just me?)
(Did you know that a young newspaper reporter once called Studs Terkel when he was 87 years old and asked him, "Studs, where do you like to party?")
(Do you squirm when you're at a restaurant with your elegant 70-year-old aunt and the 20-year-old waiter addresses you as "guys"? Do you suppose that when all nine Supreme Court justices are out to dinner, the waiter asks them, "Did you guys save room for dessert?"?)
I honestly don't believe this kind of linguistic leveling indicates a lack of respect for elders, or a "coarsening of the culture," or anything like that. But I'm hard pressed to explain the trend toward addressing adults the way you would address children at a Chuck E. Cheese pizza party.
Guys, could you help me out?
A gem, as your dailies usually are. Help: “y’all,” as the form of address. Many of us swear by it.
No help here. Can only tell you what I do at the drive-thru Starbucks that I frequent enough to be recognized when I round the corner in my Kia and find myself at the window with a young guy acknowledging my familiar face with a “Heh.” (Not “Hey.” No. Not even that. “Heh.”) What I do is complete the transaction then spend the rest of the car ride saying “Heh” over and over again as closely to the way he did it only because I don’t know what the fuck else to do.
I have to agree with Eleanor, the standard southern “y’all” works for all, or whatever personal pronoun you choose to identify with.