Out in Public

This afternoon I stopped off at the grocery store to pick up one thing and miraculously left with only two more, a record for me.

Very few people there were wearing masks; I probably only saw about 5 people besides me.

          Next stop, the library. In this case, the exception was the very few people NOT wearing a mask.

      
    Yesterday I was also shopping, this time in a popular department store that was in the throes of a big sale. It was several minutes before I realized I was practically the only masked person there. Fortunately, after all these months (months? more like years) of mask wearing I don’t feel at all self-conscious.

          Anyway, I was standing before the rack of birthday cards searching for one specifying 75 when a woman who looked not far from that age herself leaned over from her place in the queue leading to the registers: “Excuse me dear. Is there one for a 75^th birthday?”

          The person next in line shuffled her feet a little impatiently as I said, “Really? What a coincidence. That’s what I need, too.” I found two and offered them.

          She chose one and handed the other back. “It’s for my son-in-law. Thank you so much.”

          If her son-in-law was heading into year 75, I had seriously miscalculated her age.