I had to get bananas at Country Mart on Friday. While there, I also picked up 5 lb of potatoes for our Christmas dinner, and 3 lb of onions, 16 oz sour cream, some generic Rice Chex and Corn Chex, and Velveeta. Aside from the bananas, these were sale items. Except the generic Chex was $2.88 per box, rather than the 3-for-$10 brand name.
Anyhoo... I didn't have a whole cart full. So I didn't feel guilty about holding up the line. Also, the Old Man behind me with just a couple items had stopped in the aisle by the deli counter to talk to a woman who just wheeled her cart in, and I had to squeeze between them. So it's his own fault he didn't beat me to the only open register. You schmooze, you lose, buddy!
One cart was ahead of me. It was a guy buying a gallon of milk, and three umbrellas. Kind of unusual, but he had two little girls with him, maybe 3-4 years old, each wielding an umbrella. CLOSED! They must have seen them in the store. One little gal was standing in front of the cart. The other behind, crowding in on the end of the short checkout, where the cashier gets behind the counter. The man pried the umbrella from her hands for scanning, then gave it back. After the milk was scanned, he said,
"Wait a minute!" He grabbed an umbrella from the calmer of the two girls, and held it over the conveyor. "Scan this again, and I'll go back and get one for their little sister. She's two. She's in the car."
I'm hoping with her mom! Not alone! Anyhoo, while this was going on, another clerk came to the next checkout.
"Ma'am? I can help you over here."
"No, that's okay. He can go ahead."
I motioned to the Old Man behind me, leaning on his cart/walker like I was. The cashier nodded, but he didn't move.
"You can go ahead. I'm fine here."
"Sir? I can help you."
He seemed a little out of it, or daydreaming. Maybe hard of hearing, though he was chatty enough with that other woman. Finally, he raised his head at me, and and said,
"Well, I'm not sure I want her to check me out."
I'm pretty sure he was joking, just to cover for his inattentiveness. He turned his cart and wheeled over there. It kind of took the shine off my good deed, but I DID give him the opportunity to go ahead of me over there.
Sour cream! Thank you for reminding me. It's on my list now. Potatoes are in short supply here due to the major flooding that's happening all the way along our mighty Murray River, so frozen chips are soon to be in very short supply also. I'll be buying a bag of wedges later today for my Christmas Day dinner, with the sour cream of course.
ReplyDeleteVery nice of you to allow the old man to go ahead, even though he didn't seem to appreciate it at first.
River,
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome! I use the sour cream in my hash brown potato casserole that we're having for Christmas dinner. Frozen hash brown cubes, shredded cheddar, diced onion, sour cream, can of cream of chicken soup, plain cornflakes on top for a crunch. Baked 45-50 minutes at 350 degrees. I think I cover it with foil until the last 10-15 minutes, to keep the cornflakes from burning.
Sorry you're having a potato shortage. I bought that 5 lb of russets for the roasted veggies with bacon on top. The Pony likes it better than the casserole, but Genius and Friend prefer the casserole.
I think maybe the old man wasn't paying attention, and didn't know we were talking to him.