Sunday, June 19, 2022

Brief Encounters

 

It’s official. I’m my mother (and possibly yours). 

          I was buying plants last week at Home Depot and approached the line to pay. A well-tatooed woman in her 60s was approaching from the other direction. I hesitated, but she ordered me to step up behind the next guy waiting, and said she’d fall in behind me. Soon another woman, possibly in her 50s, who looked like she’s just finished weeding the yard arrived. We three formed a zig-zaggy ragged line in the limited space left.

 I said something to the effect of, “I’ve gotta learn to follow directions!”

Woman #1 said, “I never have! Why start now?”

Woman #2 said, “Me either!”

And we were off, with good-hearted bandinage about fictional past lives of rebellion. By the time I reached the register, we’d covered men, the weather, and the fact that Woman #1 was a new grandmother as of that very morning. A baby boy, who’d weighed 8lbs 10oz. and his mama had been a big baby herself, so this was no surprise.

Much more fun than waiting there silently wondering what’s taking so darn long with the cashier.

7 comments:

  1. Much more fun. I have those conversations too - which makes himself cringe. Tough.

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  2. That's funny! I would love to have been there with you in that line. :-)

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  3. 8 pounds 10 ounces is a big boy, my new little twin grand-daughters were much smaller, one at 5lb 2oz the other at 4lb something, perhaps 3oz, but both are doing well now. I would have loved to be in the line and eavesdropping.

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    1. Congratulations! So exciting! Our twin grandgirls are now 4. Like yours, they began at 4 lbs 3oz and 5lbs 13.. Funny when I recall that their dad was 12lbs13!

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  4. That was a somewhat extraordinary exchange, I mean, you went long and deep in that short time.

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  5. Well I'm glad it was a positive exchange. You never know what you're going to get when conversing with strangers!

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