When you are reading here whether you found me intentionally or accidently, please take time to leave a comment and let me know where you are and what you are thinking. I love feed back. Vondi

Saturday, January 30, 2010

shopping carts

I haven’t told any stories from Krogers for a long time. It isn’t that there haven’t been any, but just that I haven’t written them down. But Rachael came home with several recently and I had to write at least one of them down.

One was about a girl-woman that works as a bagger and carry out person. She is very slow moving and is very easily distracted. The other day she was wandering around, not really doing her job and basically getting into trouble. One of the cashiers spoke pretty harshly to her and Suzie (not her real name) got upset and came blubbering to Rachael.

Rachael’s Navajo heritage makes her the ultimate diplomat, but also ultimately honest. She dealt with Suzie’s grief and explained that maybe the cashier had sounded mean, but Suzie needed to be doing her job! Suzie calmed down but was still feeling sorry for herself, so Rachael decided to give her time to collect herself and sent her out to collect shopping carts from the parking lot.

This isn’t a job Suzie gets very often because she isn’t very good at it, not that she seems to resent it but she just isn't good at it! It doesn’t take long to collect the carts from the parking lot, but teens being kids, can make it into a nice long outing. At any rate, Suzie got her coat on and went trucking out to the parking lot. After about 15 minutes when she hadn’t returned yet, Rachael went to look for her.

Suzie was standing by the cart return area with her hands loosely holding a cart handle, looking at the sky. She was peering so intently that Rachael actually went outside to see if there was a plane or a bird or even an escaped balloon up there. Nope, nothing!

Just as Rachael was about to call her and say “hurry with the carts” Suzie decided that the sky was no longer interesting and maneuvered the long line of carts out of the collection area and started back to the store with them. Rachael went back inside to watch.

The line of carts was all free of the collection area railing and partially blocking the parking lot when something in the sky caught Suzie’s attention again. She stopped stock still and began staring at the sky. Cars had to take turns to get around her, but she never noticed. After a few minutes, someone must have said something to her because she looked around in a little surprise and began again to try to get the carts aligned for the final push into the store. It must have been quite and effort because after a few almost futile pushes she stopped to rest. Arms hanging over the handles of the first few carts, head hanging down between her shoulders, Suzie looked as though she had just run the Boston Marathon. Apparently exhausted she took a brief break.

The line of carts had moved just enough that now it wasn’t blocking the aisle between the rows of parked cars but was protruding into the actual access lane along in front of the store.

She stood there long enough that Rachael stepped out of the store again and called to her, “Suzie, we need the carts now. We’re getting low.” Suzie looked up, waved gaily, and started out on the home stretch. She came in the store with a sense of feat accomplished, smiling broadly and proud of herself. She was back to her good natured self.

Whadayado? Rachael smiled and told her Good Job. At least she had kept that Cruise Missile from crashing in the parking lot!

No comments:

Post a Comment