WalMart Scenario

I was amused earlier today by a trio at the Wal-Mart—apparently a young woman had both her husband and father (or father in law) in tow with her to buy some plastic glasses and plates for some kid’s party. They were talking about inane things in loud voices and I avoided them. Later, when I came back to look again, they were still in the same aisle, apparently unable to reach any decision about their purchases and move on. The Daddy of the group had been grumpy when I made my first pass and was now more so. This time I hung around and did my browsing regardless of their presence. This time I could tell that Daddy reeked of alcohol—and plenty of it—though it was only 11 in the morning. He’d gotten an early start. Since Daughter couldn’t make up her mind about the color of the plastic cups, he got sharp with her.

“Well, just get both!” he blurted. “Garbly bargly, this is takin’ all fruffin’ day!”

“Well, I can’t afford to get both colors of everything!” Daughter whined while simultaneously getting the second color of plastic glasses off the shelf.

“Yeah, that’s what I say!” says Husband, coming up from behind, having apparently conducted his own business in a masculine timely manner and smiling like he just had a joint. “Let’s blow this place, dammit!” He was ill tempered at the same time that he was high and good-natured—it’s a redneck thing, I guess. One could begin to see that he was indeed Daddy’s nascent son, just less gruff at present.

They shuffled off at a pretty good pace and were soon gone. With them out of the way, I could tell at a glance that what I was searching for wasn’t anywhere on that aisle. In fact, it turned out that it wasn’t anywhere in the store. It wasn’t anywhere in the next store, either. Of course, at present I can't even remember what I was searching for. Guess it wasn't important.

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