When I drove onto the parking lot of the Gas Station Chicken Store on Saturday, there were few cars. My rightful handicap space was open. There was a truck and horse trailer at the diesel pumps, and a truck on the other side. A van driving away from the gas pumps. And a little green truck on the upper lot. This was good news for Mrs. HM! She HATES waiting in line. Not just for standing on sore knees, but because she feels a bit claustrophobic in the close quarters of the GSCS.
As I hobbled inside, a youngster ran past me. I didn't look up. That might have thrown off my balance. I assumed it was a young 'un from that horse trailer. I could actually smell the horses.
Well. Once inside, I was sorely disappointed. A man was paying for gas with a credit card. Three teenage girls were milling around at the register. A dude with a walkie/talkie radio of some kind strung on a strap over his shoulder was going down the middle aisle. Too many people! I stood to the side, leaning on a display of beer cases, and tried to calm myself until the place cleared out.
DANG! The three girls were all buying something. They were chatty. Just taking up time. Declaring they didn't need a bag, because they were just going to eat their purchases. The Dude came back to the front, eating an ice cream sandwich. He stood by the door. Lurking. I wasn't sure of his purpose, but he seemed to be with the girls. He finished his ice cream sandwich, and went back down the middle aisle looking for the wastebasket. Then I spotted a guy holding two fountain sodas, who had come up on the soda aisle.
The girls finally finished. I let the soda guy go ahead, even though he had appeared after I was already in line. One of those girls backed up, almost into me! That's all I needed! To be toppled over by the cases of beer! But she stopped just in time. Then said, "There's no place to stand in here!" One of her cronies finished eating an ice cream sandwich, and commanded her to go back by the soda fountain to throw away the wrapper in the lone trash can. She didn't want to, but the other gal told her to just do it.
THEN the guy paying for the fountain sodas declared, "Just a minute. I want to get an ice cream sandwich. They look so good." And left his stuff on the counter, and went down the third aisle for his treat. By that time, the walkie/talkie dude was in line again on the first aisle. I don't know why those gals kept hanging around. Surely they were capable of walking out to the horse trailer on their own.
At least Walkie/Talkie Dude let me go next. Really. It WAS my turn. PAST my turn! So I bought my tickets, though I prefer not to have an audience of four people watching me for no reason.
Once home and scratching, I won $90 on my tickets! It was $10 on a ten, $30 on a ten, and $50 on a three-dollar ticket. So there's that. I'm glad I didn't leave and come back later, as I often do when the place is crowded.
No comments:
Post a Comment