Friday, February 23, 2007
A Promised Snowstorm
We in Minnesota are waiting with baited breath* for a promised snowstorm. Forecasts all day have been saying to expect 12 to 14 inches over the weekend. We're thrilled at the prospect, but a little doubtful all the same. The situation reminds me of a short story that I once read in an Alfred Hitchcock anthology. The story was about a girl who was originally from Earth, but her family had immigrated to another planet. On this new planet, the sun only shone once every so often - at some ridiculously long, but predictible interval. The little girl missed sunshine and was teased for her weirdness. She was in class the day the sun was due to shine, but the mean little buggers who were her classmates locked her in a closet and she missed the whole thing. That's where the story ended, leaving readers to wonder whether she went insane and slashed her wrists or mowed the little snots down with a machine gun.
So, here we are, Minnesotans chomping at the bit for snow. The grocery store was packed with people stocking up in hopes of hunkering down all weekend. The results remain to be seen. The ten o'clock news showed that the system had shifted about 100 miles south, so some of us might not get the promised snowstorm. Darn it, darn it, darn it. Please, please, please . . . if we promise to be good, can we have some snow? A great big dumping? Please, please, please?
*Baited breath - What is that exactly? The fumes from an anchovy and onion pizza?
So, here we are, Minnesotans chomping at the bit for snow. The grocery store was packed with people stocking up in hopes of hunkering down all weekend. The results remain to be seen. The ten o'clock news showed that the system had shifted about 100 miles south, so some of us might not get the promised snowstorm. Darn it, darn it, darn it. Please, please, please . . . if we promise to be good, can we have some snow? A great big dumping? Please, please, please?
*Baited breath - What is that exactly? The fumes from an anchovy and onion pizza?
Labels: alfred hitchcock, baited breath, earth, grocery store, minnesota, reading, snow, story, winter
Monday, January 22, 2007
Guilty of Nothing
Yesterday, our youngest son bolted into the bedroom and asked if he could go to the grocery store with a friend of his. He and the friend had heard that another friend had been at the grocery store recently and had been there no more than ten minutes when a store employee told him to leave because he knew he was there to shoplift. My son and his friend wanted to go to the grocery store and avenge their friend. While a valiant maneuver, I couldn't let him go. I've long been afraid something like this would happen, where a store employee would pick on one of my kids just because they were young and at the store without parents. It's a horrible, silly attitude that adults have toward kids. Every time our son has gone to the grocery store with a friend, I've forewarned him to be on his best behavior and not to act like he's up to something suspicious.
Yesterday afternoon, we finally allowed Young Son #2 and friend to go to the grocery store. They were followed around the store by an employee, even though they went to purchase something specific and my son ended up buying several other things (a coconut, a star fruit, and a cucumber - he realized once he got home that he doesn't really like coconut, but wanted the experience of opening one). Here they were, guilty of nothing, except for being customers, but they were treated like shoplifters. Crazy. How long would an adult put up with this before deciding not to shop at a store again?
Yesterday afternoon, we finally allowed Young Son #2 and friend to go to the grocery store. They were followed around the store by an employee, even though they went to purchase something specific and my son ended up buying several other things (a coconut, a star fruit, and a cucumber - he realized once he got home that he doesn't really like coconut, but wanted the experience of opening one). Here they were, guilty of nothing, except for being customers, but they were treated like shoplifters. Crazy. How long would an adult put up with this before deciding not to shop at a store again?
Labels: grocery store, guilt, innocence, shoplifting, shopping, son
