It’s Saturday so that means the wife has an agenda. This at least gets us out of the house. If left to ourselves, the kids and I would likely never leave the house on any Saturday. On today’s agenda was a trip to Lowe’s (we heard that some landscaping bricks were on clearance), Radio Shack (I needed a power convertor for my upcoming trip to Romania), MC Sports (to pick up another pair of pants for me), Target (we needed some school supplies) and Pet Supplies Plus (kitty litter, hair ball medicine and to visit the puppies that are there on Saturdays from Don’s Dogs).
We did hit the jackpot at Lowe’s and scored some landscaping bricks. There was a pallet out front of 16” scalloped red bricks marked down to $0.05 each (that’s right, only a nickel each). While I loaded 50 into the back of the Buick, the wife went into pay for them. With the Buick’s tail end heavily weighed down we headed on to our remaining stops. Other than the below story I am about to relate to you, the day was uneventful.
While at Target (for some school supplies) we ended up shopping for other things. I need either a new watch or a battery for my old watch and the daughter wanted / needed some new ear rings. When we were all done (I thought), the daughter whined until I agreed to let her go to the toy section (her allowance tends to burn a hole in her pocket). The wife and son joined her and I just hung out in the front of the store. A few minutes later they returned.
The daughter was holding a small toy and the son was holding a large count package of toilet paper. We headed to the checkout and commenced paying. The cashier put the small items in a bag but left the toilet paper (did I mention it was a large count package?) out for us to carry without the aid of a (concealing) plastic bag. Let me explain why this concerned me. The Target here in Kokomo is located at one end of the mall and the previous store we went to (MC Sports) was located in the middle of the mall. We parked near that store and simply had walked to Target from there. Not having a plastic bag meant that someone had to carry the toilet paper (did I mention it was a large count package?) just over half the length of the mall (on a Saturday, when the mall is crowded).
I only had time to ponder this issue for a few moments when the son solved the problem for me by volunteering (without being asked) to carry this item for us. Problem solved, right? But now I had a new problem. Now I have a son who seems not only OK with carrying an item like this in public but doing it cheerfully (as if he really wanted to). This is what I thought of as I (quickly as I was not wearing my new brown dress shoes) walked through the mall (on the other side as my son) to get back to the (back end noticeably lower than the front end) Buick. Why would a 12 year old boy seem proud and even a little excited to carry such a product? Why does this bother me even?
It is late evening now and I still don’t know what to make of this event. I think I will just choose to move on and not dwell on it (after writing this blog about it of course).
Jon
No comments:
Post a Comment