Little Stalky's Number Seven

I've come to realise that grumpy old men - and I mean grumpy old men very specifically - have major issues with my handwriting.  I'd like to point out that I'm not being sexist, ageist or moodist and I'm not saying it's every grumpy old man out there, but there are certain grumpy old man who have been complaining, to me, about my handwriting.  So you're wondering what this is about?  How is my handwriting causing offence?  It's specifically when I write out access codes for these grumpy old men to use to open the gate.  I give them a six digit number, written in nice bold numbers in a big black marker.  Yes, my handwriting is not the best but these numbers are more than legible.  The main beef (this is a technical term) that they seem to have is with my use of the number seven.  It's because I write my sevens with a cross - you know, the European seven.  I've always done it this way and feels it helps to differentiate between a seven and a one.  The amount of grumpy old men who point this out is getting ridiculous.  They make such a fuss about it that anyone would have thought I'd written in a foreign language.  Just for fun.  The weird thing is that no one else has a problem with my sevens.  Every other person is fine.  It is only the grumpy old men.  They like to use the seven to try and put me down.  They point at it and sneer before questioning what it is.  They look at it, knowing full well it's a seven, before asking rudely why I write my sevens in such a silly manner.  They squint at the card and hold it in my face before demanding to know what number the seven is.  It's a seven!  You fool!  I can accept that perhaps there are people who've never seen a European seven but is there any need to be rude about it.  Do you have to bring attention to the girl standing behind reception just because you disagree with the way she writes her sevens.  Someone even pulled me up on my number two (stop giggling) the other day.  He literally scowled at me and demanded to know what "that" was.  I politely replied that it was a number two, to which he told me it looked nothing like it.  It bloody well did look like a two.  He needed to get his eyes checked.  So I get picked on a lot for my number sevens.  The number two was a one off.  But I refuse to submit to their tactics.  I will write the number seven how I want to write the number seven and I will not conform to their tyrannical, number inhibiting ways.