Sunday, June 2, 2013

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. 

19 comments:

  1. When we visited our friends in Atlanta GA we were treated to the Walmart style. My soul sister Robin insisted that no visit could be complete without seeing this homegrown phenomenon - I concur. Everyone should visit Walmart and try not to let their bottom jaw crash to the floor. As my daughter said yesterday when we saw the man with a large beer gut in a cut off T-shirt "Just because you can, doesn't mean that you should"

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  2. Scary!!! I hope you managed to remember the rest of your to do list after that nasty shock. Have a hug.

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  3. Goodness me, poor man he obviously was in a great need of thirst.. and I will leave going to the site for another day.. too late tonight.. I do get to see those photos that do the rounds of facebook of people who shop at walmart and I tell you there are some ....... characters out there!!

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  4. Crazy dressed people are unfortunately not limited to Walmart :-) The sad part is that if the Crazy Tea Dude had used his indoor voice and been polite, he would have probably had someone show him the iced tea! But then we wouldn't have had this story to amuse us ... ninjas and all :-)

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  5. Crikey what a wierdo! Glad you had some ninja moves ready, but panic buttons sound good.

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  6. One shouldn't laugh, it could have been a serious incident, but oh Mitra, the way you tell a story. So descriptive. And, I bet you could have cleared the counter with a ninja move if things had got desperate!

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  7. Things to carry in your purse: tissues, tampons, mace, gum, 50 old receipts to wrap said gum in, lip balm, ICED TEA, Ninja moves 101. Did I get the moral of the story correct here?
    GOOD GRIEF....so glad floppy hair moved on. Hopefully he found his salvation on aisle 4.
    AWESOME STORY!!!

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  8. Scary story!

    You'll laugh at this..I discovered Iced Tea for the first time when I travelled to stay near Boston for an exchange trip when I was seventeen. It hadn't reached us yet. I developed such a passion for it that my host family used to pay to ship me great big heavy tins of the powder for years afterwards! i always thought that was way over and above the call of duty, and it was much appreciated.

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  9. A trip to Wal-Mart is never dull, is it? Although this story qualifies as scary, not just odd!! So glad you didn't have to try out those ninja moves! I have to agree that they should keep the check out coolers stocked with iced tea...

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  10. Iced tea still isn't a big thing around here but it can be found if you hunt (my Mom does...) so I do hope Mr Floppy Hair found what he was looking for in the end. Wonderfully told too.

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  11. Isn't it amazing what a loud demanding voice can do to a group of people just trying to take care of a few errands!

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  12. I need to see you practising the nina move - Man you would have nailed it...

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  13. And your warning about the walmart site was NOT strong enough, you need some serious drugs or at least pure spirits to get through that site...

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  14. Eeeek! Reminds me of the time I was standing in a bank queue & they guy in front hadn't moved forward to a teller ~ so I gently touched him on the elbow to point that out....he almost flattened me...screamed to 'not touch him' .....so, yeah, I absolutely 'get you' being a bit freaked out:):):)

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  15. Oh - so atmospheric - you have such a way of telling a story. He must have been one scary chap! Glad the Ninja moves weren't needed. Thanks for sharing. J x

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  16. I could feel your nervousness...glad it didn't get worse...and yes, Walmart really IS. An experience!
    Alson xx

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  17. Oh my - awkward and frightening to be sure - you can never be sure when someone will go completely off. I'm also impressed that you keep your stuff for errands in the car - I should be so organized - I always seem to have something sitting on the kitchen counter that I wish I had because I was out and about and had time for an extra errand - if I had what I needed that is.

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  18. You did make me laugh here with your comment about clearing the counter. Glad it all turned out well in the end though :)

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