A Splash from the Past

A Splash from the Past

On a rainy evening, many years ago, I helped a lady out with her groceries only to find that she had locked the keys in her car. I offered to get a hanger from the back of the store to unlock her door with. In the men’s rest room, there were plenty of wire hangers available. I snatched one and ran back out to where she waited in the sprinkling rain with her cart full of her groceries neatly packed in plastic bags.

It took a while but I managed to get the door opened and I loaded her groceries into the back seat. If this happened to her it could happen again to an other customer so I turned to take the hanger back with me. She quickly snatched it from my hand and stuck it under her front seat of the car. “Now if this ever happens again, I’ll have one handy."

Later, the rain got a lot heavier. Water washed off all of the litter from the black top. A river, knee deep, flowed in front of the store taking the trash out to the street and into the storm drains. It became a real challenge to get carts through the river and up the hill to customer’s cars and back to the building. I tried to keep the floor mopped up from the puddles. My plastic poncho made even more puddles when I came in from every order. The floor mats were soaked to full capacity. I helped all of the customers I could at the same time mopping up from everyone who came in. My shoes were soaked and squished water out everywhere I walked. I didn’t even give it much thought. Customer service and safety was all I had on my mind. Any personal discomfort was just something to laugh off. 

Another woman had a big order for me to package in register five. Without a thought, I offered, “Paper or plastic?” To that I added, “How silly is that? It is raining like crazy. Plastic, right?” She got a bit angry with me, “Never offer me plastic! Plastic is NOT biodegradable! Paper IS! Always put mine in paper!” I reminded her of the storm outside and the heavy rain but she insisted on paper.

I filled her paper sacks like I normally would. She brought her car up to the store and I began to load her groceries. Although I didn’t have to go far to load her car it didn’t seem to make any difference. The paper sacks didn’t have a chance. “You are right! Paper is biodegradable.” Every one of her sacks had turned to mush from the sheets of rain. I managed to get them in her back seat before they all fell completely apart.

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