Remember when you were a kid, reading Highlights magazine, the page with the cartoon of Goofus and Gallant? Not really a ha-ha cartoon. More of a cartoon of good manners propaganda. Goofus would snatch something out of a person's hands, and run off. Gallant would say, "May I have that, please?" You get the drift.
Anyhoo...I encountered real life examples while out and about, violating Stay-At-Home-Down on Thursday while banking and post-officing. Techically, while convenience-storing. Because what good is rule-breaking if you only do it for necessary errands?
Anyhoo...I was in the Sis-Town Casey's to pre-pay for T-Hoe's weekly gas. He skipped a week, you know, due to inactivity. I paid $1.39 a gallon for the cheap stuff. Can't see paying $2.09 for the super premium. Sorry, T-Hoe!
Anyhoo...while paying, I had waited on the orange circle to allow the proper social distance for the guy ahead of me at the counter. When he left, I moved up for my turn. Imagine my surprise, when turning to leave, to find a teenage gal THISCLOSE to my left shoulder!
Sweet Gummi Mary! Not only was she not allowing me six feet, she was practically in my shirt pocket! I'm no more of a germaphobe now than I was during my teaching career. But this was going too far! I mean coming too close! This gal made Elaine's close-talker boyfriend (played by Judge Reinhold) seem like he was shouting from the other end of a football field.
She did nothing to endear herself to me by being part of a five-person pack of humans shopping at a convenience store, either! She was GOOFUS GAL!
In contrast, I entered the School-Turn Casey's to buy scratchers, and saw the line winding all the way back to the soda fountain. They have a problem since their remodel. There is absolutely no waiting area for a checkout line. As Farmer H would say, "Probably some stupid engineer designed it."
Anyhoo...two cashiers were working. Each had a customer. A woman and a guy were waiting, in a single line. In fact, when a cashier was available, the guy stayed rooted to his spot. He was allowing a 12-foot social distance. Another kind of annoyance, but I guess he thought he was being polite, or else he was deathly afraid of possible death. I suppose he was GALLANT GUY.
I would have settled for a Goldilocks in line ahead or behind me.
She would have been JUST RIGHT.
You didn't mention...Was Goofus Gal wearing a mask?
ReplyDeleteI shudder in fright, awaiting the answer.
Sioux,
ReplyDeleteNO! That's what makes her even more Goofus-y! Though to be fair, Gallant Guy wasn't wearing a mask, either. Not many people wear them around here. I might see one on each trip to town. Gallant Guy was wearing the standard young whippersnapper uniform of jacket, knit cap, and track pants at he waiting in line holding his Monster...
I see people doing the distancing thing everywhere except in the aisles of the supermarket where they have to pass each other, since the aisles aren't wide enough to step aside, then there's people who stop in the middle to check what's on the shelves, you can't get past without getting too close. Luckily of me, I know exactly where the things I need are situated, so I can go straight there and just hang back a bit if someone is already there. Most days I get in, grab a newspaper which is right by the checkouts and get back out again.
ReplyDeleteIn the city, where people go running on the parks trails, there are so many exercising now there just isn't the space for proper distancing, especially taking into the fact that runners expel breath with more force than walkers, so you need to be further behind because the germs will be carried further.
River,
ReplyDeleteI think the runners would be fairly safe, since they wouldn't be out running if they were sick. I have a problem with assuming EVERYONE is infected, and giving off the virus without symptoms while feeling good enough to exercise.
That said, a too-close teenage girl breathing in my face in a convenience store bothers me, even though young people are quite under-represented among the infected.