Ice Tea Dude & People of Walmart

Ran to the store recently to grab the essentials. Pop tarts and milk. You know how small people get belligerent when there is no milk for the Frosted Flakes in the wee hours of the am. Ended up at the BIG STORE in town, due to getting in the jeep and realizing I needed to return something. My to-do list is on the seat of the jeep. Package to mail, things to return, things to run to the second hand store, it all sits on the passenger side waiting to ambush me. ;-)

Which is exactly why I was standing in the long line at the returns counter at lunch. Was not one of my more brilliant moves.

Right at the very moment I arrived at the front of the line and the nice lady at the register beings processing my return, this dude shows up.

He was skinny, wearing black and had floppy hair. I know, the police officers would appreciate that very accurate description right there.

He wandered along the front of the counter addressing no one in particular and demanded to know WHERE HE COULD FIND A COLD ICE TEA. He was clearly using his outdoor voice and made the hair on my neck prickle. He then proceeded to keep up a long loud argument about how people in charge should take care of the situation, etc. etc. 

I turned to look at Mr. Rude when I realized he just did not look quite right. He had that nearly at breaking point look. I tried to move my body as far away as possible with my back toward him. 

I did feel his pain. I too have searched in vain for an ice tea by the registers. I mean, there are coolers at nearly every one which seem to contain every soft drink known to man, but no ice tea. 

HOWEVER it was no reason to make everyone nervous and jerky.

He finally stomped off in search of the mythical tea and everyone resumed breathing.

IT WAS THAT AWKWARD. 

So, to ease the tension, I told the lady at the register that I was trying to decide if I could clear the counter in a ninja move in case Tea Dude had a gun.

Thankfully they all started laughing at that point, but clearly they had been scared. The lady ringing me out said she wished she had a panic button. Me too, I wish she had one too! I would have pushed it hard a whole bunch of times. 

I will say that Tea Dude did not fall into the not so rare People of Walmart category since he was only crazy in his head and not in clothing choices. I did feel a whole lot better upon exiting the store and heading for home. It could have ended badly and I had a front row seat. 

Linking this up over at Story Telling Sunday.

P.S. Should you be from places other than here and chose to click on the People of Walmart link, I suggest only doing so with a full glass of wine with the bottle near by. Don't say I didn't warn you....

P.P.S. The only moral of the story I believe is that Walmart SHOULD carry ice tea up front. People demand it.