Mrs. HM, The Confrontationalist

Most days, Mrs. HM slides through life not making waves, her picture next to milquetoast in the dictionary. Remember the dictionary? Anyhoo... on Thursday, Mrs. HM made a stand. It involved scratchers. Nobody messes with Mrs. Hillbilly Mom's scratchers!

I was in the Sis-Town Casey's, paying for T-Hoe's weekly gas, and getting scratchers. The cashier was a slim chick I've had wait on me many times. She's always polite and businesslike. I told her I wanted $20 of gas on Pump 3, and to get scratchers. She put the gas purchase in the register, and asked which scratchers I wanted.

"A number 25, and three number 27s."

Slim Chick tore off my tickets, and laid them on the counter. She did not fold them over on themselves like some cashiers. I could see the face of the tickets. Which revealed that the strip of three tickets was NOT what I had asked for.

"Oh. Sorry. Those are not the tickets I asked for. I wanted three of the number 27s. That's the crossword. Not those Fun 5s you gave me."

"That IS the number 27."

"Out here in your case, it shows the crossword ticket as the number 27."

Rather than taking those Fun 5s back and giving me the crosswords, Slim Chick leaned over the counter and tried to look around at the case. With a bit of an attitude! Like she was going to prove me wrong, instead of just giving me the crossword tickets that I said I wanted. She could not lean around enough to see the case. So she walked all the way around the counter, up beside me. Where I pointed to the crossword tickets with the number 27 label.

Then Slim Chick went back around the counter, and called over another clerk. Who asked what she had already rang up. Which was my gas and the other ticket, but not the Fun 5s. Other Clerk put the Fun 5s back in the case while Slim Chick stepped to the next register, to wait on the line that had formed.

Other Clerk asked if I meant the $3 or $5 crosswords. When I said the $5, she said, "Oh. There are SO MANY $5 tickets in here." Not rudely. Just matter-of-factly. With a bit of despair. Then she found the right tickets, and scanned them and told me the total. Took my exact cash payment, and apoligized for the inconvenience. I told her it was no problem.

Really. It was no problem with HER. But Slim Chick did not need to be so rude when I asked for the ticket I wanted. I'm not paying for some random ticket just because whoever stocked the lottery tickets did not do it right. Finding the ticket I asked for would have been fine. No apology necessary. But instead she acted like I was an idiot or a liar, and huffed around the counter to prove me wrong. Yet she couldn't.

Fave at the Gas Station Chicken Store would never treat a customer this way.