It Takes All Kinds

On regular network TV there are at least three organizations that have commercials which depicts the consumer, or customer, falling in love with the person of an organization because of the wonderful service. Lowes’, Sears, and the Postal Service have commercials of that sort.

Each time the employee of the company seems a little taken back and embarrassed but the consumer just can’t help him or herself – they are so overcome with such an unexpected excellent service or product.

There is one lady out there somewhere that makes me identify with the Postal Service commercials of that type.

She was a little hollow woman that always seemed to not know what she was doing and craving for some human attention. I imagined her husband and children completely ignored her.

When I worked on the window at the Postal Service once she came to my window and I politely waited her and I listened as she talked and I threw in my 2¢ on whatever she was taking about. She was overwhelmed with my kindness.

She wouldn’t shut up. She found someone nice that listened to her.

I forgot the details but over several weeks we came to my window many times and each time during a crowded time during long lines which would naturally irritate the people in line, seeing us talk about nothing important while they had to stand on their feet and wait and wait until the next available clerk was available.

Some fellow clerks knew the situation and when came up and started yapping they would come up and tell me of some reason I had to leave the window like the postmaster was on the phone wanting to talk to me, or they needed me to help with the dispatch or some other white lie for me to detached from her.

The little woman and her family were moving back to their hometown in Ohio. Gad, I wished they would just go ahead and move.

Then one day I ran into her in a store. She walked up to be and started yakking as always and I looked at her rudely, and walked quickly away. She looked at me puzzled and that was the end of our relationship. I don’t think I ever saw her again.

Now, just to make it interesting, the Gods added a little spice: A lady who worked elsewhere in the building by the name of Jackie told me she lived next door to the little woman-nut.

Wait! There is more: Jackie’s aunt and uncle (Frankie and Al) lived almost across from me. Just across the street and one door down.

Wait, there is more: Frankie and Al were sick of our neighbors. They were always imposing on them, borrowing things, and just walking into their house without knocking and helping themselves to whatever they needed… evidently Al made the mistake of saying something like, “What is mine is yours.”…. be careful what you say.

Frankie and Al discovered a house next door to their niece Jackie was for sale. The looked at it and liked it even more because their niece owned a swimming pool. They bought it.

They closed out the deal and almost everybody were ready to move but the lady-nut refused to leave. The movers came, got their furniture and left for Ohio. The family pleaded for the lady-nut to get in the car and she refused…she was talking incoherently. Finally they left without her.

That sounds cruel, but as the Joe South said, you have to walk a mile in someone’s shoes. Maybe they knew she needed help but their HMO didn’t cover mental problems.

If I remember right somehow she talked Frankie and Al to sleep in her old basement one night only. I think they had to get the law to remove her and they realized they were dealing with someone detached from reality and put her in the hospital

I think she made another appearance or two at her old house but she was shooed away without getting ugly.

It takes all kinds to make the world go around.