Wal-Mart Blues

Various off-the-cuff experiences of life in the fast lane at Wal-Mart.

A couple of times recently I have noticed a certain new cashier at Wal-Mart. He is a huge man and he kind of fumbles what he is doing – unsure of himself. The last time I saw him he still didn’t have the confidence that would help him do his job.

This guy is familiar – I have seen him more than once in a different setting – but I just can’t recall it.

The first time I saw him being a Wal-Mart he was having some kind of problem with his customer and had called the head cashier over to help him get out of the mess. The head cashier was very confidently discussing the problem and instantly came up with a solution. What was kind of comical was that he didn’t look at the customer at all during the brief head cashier intervention – he couldn’t keep his eyes off the head cashier.

Another day, again, I noticed he couldn’t keep his eyes off the head cashier. He was silently watching her. By Jove, I think he has a crush on his boss!

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I went into Wal-Mart to buy one item. In the 10 items of less line was an old friend of mine Bobby Mc. I grew up knowing Bobby, he is a couple of years older than I. He lived around the corner and was always friendly. Since I have been married Anna and I have ran into him at several Ford Antique Car meets. He was there because he loves old Mustangs and loved to rebuild them – so, I guess he was hobnobbing with people with same tastes. We were at the meets for a more greedier purpose, we looking for parts for our old ’62 Ford pickup truck Anna’s father gave us. For a while we were looking for a certain old part that would be part of the clutch assembly and figured we might run into someone at an Old Ford meet… no luck.

I have mentioned Bobby in round-about ways on this blog a couple of times.

Bobby was glad to see me at Wal-Mart and told me he really enjoyed my blog, it brought back a lot of memories he said. I was happy to hear that… and somewhat surprised that he knew about my blog. He said his brother Ralph told him about it – then I was somewhat surprised knowing Ralph knew about it.

I wanted to tell Bobby that I was sorry his wife had recently died, but I was afraid that big smile would turn sad…. Why put a damper on it?

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A few days ago at Wal-mart Anna and I saw a lady in the dog food section very carefully studying the dog food. You could tell she was novice at buying dog food. Anna offered to help her. The problem was that she was buying dog food for a stray dog on her husband’s route. Her husband is a UPS driver. The dog won’t eat just anything, it only wanted the premium dog food. The husband wanted large cans and the kind you can peel off the top without a can opener. We decided what kind we thought the demanding stray dog might not turn up his nose at and even gave her some coupons to use, which she seemed genuinely appreciative.

A UPS driver with a big heart feeding a homeless dog on his route and the dog has nothing and has campaign taste… beggars can be choosy (lesson learned).