a civilization build with 40 percent and opposable thumbs

One of my pet peeves at the toy store is people not listening to what I say. I'm writing in "Surviving Retail" many examples of this, but for this post I'll give only one, for the purpose of clarity.

A few months ago a lady was filling out a store credit form and I told her," We just need the name and phone number, you DON'T need to fill out the address." mentioning the extraneous line between them.

As I rung up the next customer (I've become a wiz at multitasking), I noticed her starting to fill the address line out so I reminded her,"You don't need to fill that part out."
"I'm sorry, you DID tell me that."
"That's O.K.,"I told her, "that happens all the time."
"Well, maybe if you didn't even mention the address line at all, just say you need the name and phone number." Her tone was sincerely helpful, but I had this happen an average of three times a day for nearly 6 years, and I had never found the right thing to do to avoid that bit of confusion.
"I did that at first, but people filled it out anyway."
The next customer chimed in with his own suggestion,"How about if you scratch the address part out?"
That didn't seem like a logical solution to me, I said,"That seems like a lot of work, it might just be easier if people listened to what I say to them."
This sent them chortling, she said, "Surely, you can't expect us to do THAT!"
Silly me.

The thing that really gets me is the only reason I say anything to make their lives easier. They can write out their address, e-mail, and blood type for all it effects me. But that's a hallmark of my toy store experience, trying to help people through their day, despite their best efforts.

In venting my frustrations to a coworker she said," Maybe it's something in your body language, it's said that 60 percent human communication is done through body language."
That got me 'a thinking, animal communication is about a 100 percent body language.
If that's true, that means with all we've accomplished as humans, we still do most of our communcating the same way as every other animal. Who knows how far we would have gotten without opposable thumbs.

It makes me think of an episode of Futurama, when Nibbler, Leela's pet, described Earth as a "primitive dirtball inhabited by psychotic apes."