a trip to walmart
Like most people I live in my own little cocoon where I mostly just know people who are not that much different from myself. It’s natural I guess to assume that the people you know are all just average and everybody else in the country is just the same. I remember reading the comment by bewildered film critic Pauline Kael after Richard Nixon trounced George McGovern in 1972, "Nobody I knew voted for Nixon!"
Yesterday I got a hint that all was not the way I imagined. Dad needed a few things and I took him to the local WalMart, since that was about the only place open in his small town on a Saturday afternoon. I don’t get out a whole lot it’s true, but I have been to WalMarts before. However I don’t remember them being quite like this.
The parking lot was packed. Guys with missing front teeth were wheeling around in jacked-up pickups with Confederate flags in place of the front license plate. They barely stopped at the pedestrian crossing for me and my 93-year-old dad in his walker and then they impatiently stepped on their gas when we were not even halfway across.
Just when I was beginning to think this could be a set for a remake of Deliverance, we stepped through the front doors and into what was apparently a county convention of 13-year-old girls. Luckily the crowd thinned out once we were safely past the lobby and into the main store. In fact we had the men’s department pretty much to ourselves. There was even a helpful young store clerk who directed us to everything on our list.
He was not typical though. Most of the employees looked like they should have been retirees. They wore little vests covered with badges. I would like to go back sometime and talk to them about the badges. They remind me of the “snowbirds” I see when we visit my father-in-law in the RV park. They wear the same kind of gear.
It seemed odd that the employees were generally so much older than the customers. Not so long ago store clerks all seemed to be teenage girls who stood around chewing gum and ignoring me while they gossiped with each other. Here they all had wrinkles and shaky hands. I saw one elderly employee on a ladder getting something off the top shelf and I felt a pang of guilt. I had to repress an impulse to ask him to have a seat while I got the item for him.
Not being experienced with the way the store works I had neglected to pick up a shopping cart when I came in, so I had to leave Dad there and push my way back up front to get one. Apparently I was not the only one to forget this. Awhile later after we had filled it up with a half dozen items we left the cart alone while we walked down an aisle looking for something. When we returned someone had dumped our merchandise out and made off with the cart. I left Dad alone again and stomped back up front one more time for another cart, muttering under my breath.
I believe this is a new low in my shopping experience. I can’t recall ever having a shopping cart stolen before.
Luckily we got through the cash registers and back through the parking lot to the car without being run over.
The trip gave me some things to think about. I’ve read about this but it was the first time I had experienced first-hand the changing demographics of low-wage employees. And having my shopping cart stolen that way - apparently I have been over-estimating the human race.
forwarded emails
So what do you do when you get one of those forwarded emails with a message or joke that is politically offensive or contains misinformation? Yesterday I got one sent by a friend from my church that some of you may have seen - a picture of crosses in the National Cemetery with a tagline to the effect that the ACLU is trying to have them removed.
In the past I have mostly ignored these messages and just deleted them, or sometimes replied asking to be taken off their email list. Once in a while I have let my emotions get the better of me and responded with something sarcastic, even on occasion replying to all who were included on the original post. Lately if I respond I have tried to be polite, taking the position that it is a matter of education, and pointing out websites where the sender can inform himself on the issue.
Living as I do in Texas and not being especially outspoken about my politics, acquaintances may just assume that I share their conservative viewpoint, or maybe they just don't care. Why are they corresponding with me on this matter in the first place? Do they think things like this are true and want to make me aware, are they trying to change my opinion on the subject, or do they just think it is humorous and never thought about whether it is true or not? Maybe they feel a need to reach out to me in some way and just hit the forward button without considering the content. At any rate it does not seem right to just let things pass without comment, but I don't really like to get "worked up" over things like this and get a reputation as a hot-head.
So what do you do?
