Month: July 2018

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WOULD YOU SHOPLIFT ASPIRIN FROM THE DOLLAR STORE?

I know of people who would not want to be seen in a Dollar Store.  But it’s on the way home from the library and they have good prices, so I stopped for a bottle of aspirin.
There was a lot of confusion at the check out.  An elderly man was having trouble finding a credit card that worked, which meant the line was backed up pretty deep.  At last, another clerk appeared and started checking people out at a second cash register, while the man kept going back to his car in desperation to find a good credit card.  Finally, I offered to pay his bill, but at that moment, he found a card that worked, or maybe found some cash. These are some of the sad stories you see there every day.
Nevertheless, I got home and unpacked my Bayer Aspirin from the box.   Upon unscrewing the cap, I saw that the foil seal had been neatly trimmed away, and there were maybe 10 aspirin in the bottom of the bottle.  By then, I’d thrown the box in the trash and it was all wet and smashed.  Fortunately, the receipt was stuck in my purse, so I was all set to get my money back.  The manager was very understanding and immediately gave me a new , intact bottle.  I asked him if that wasn’t pretty amazing to think someone would bother stealing a few aspirin, and he shrugged and said, “happens every day.” 
I got to thinking about the person who did that.  Was it an employee who sneakily stole the aspirin when no one was around?  Or maybe someone broke, desperate, and in pain.  It seems incredible that in our affluent society someone would risk a shoplifting conviction for such a small thing. I really don’t know, but from now on, I’m going to check the over the counter drugs  I purchase, just to make sure they’re all there.

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DO YOU VOTE IN THE PRIMARIES? IF NOT, WHY?

 

My state has the distinction of having had the lowest voter turnout in the primaries this spring: 20%.  And yet, my hometown in Indiana  is considered a bellwether city, having predicted the outcome of every presidential election except two since 1888. And they haven’t missed in 60 years.  Clearly, Hoosiers do vote, just not so much in the primaries.


Statistically, college graduates are more likely to vote than the rest of the population.   My husband and I both have post graduate degrees, but we don’t vote in the primaries, because in order to do so, you have to vote as a Republican or Democrat, and we are neither.  For example:  We strongly disagree with the Republican stance against Planned Parenthood.  We disagree with Democrats on the idea of universal health care.  Consequently, we tend to vote for a particular candidate who more closely represents our views, rather than the party he/she is affiliated with.  We’ve voted for both Republican and  Democratic candidates for years.  And of course, we always voted for that Hoosier favorite, Evan Bayh, no matter what he was running for. There was a true gentleman and a scholar, and his leaving politics was understandable, but depressing.

 

Sometimes, if we don’t care for the candidates from either party, we choose the one we dislike the least.  

 
I know, the party activists would accuse us of apathy and lacking in patriotism.  But we aren’t activists.  We wouldn’t have the energy for it, at our age.  We only know about the newer candidates from what we see on TV, which may or may not be accurate, and it’s often easier to vote for or against an incumbent, because  he/she  at least has a track record. So now, we can just sit back, relax,  and make our own  independent decisions  in the fall elections as to who would best serve the needs of our fellow Americans.

 

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DO’S AND DON’TS OF HUGGING

Hugging someone you barely know or care about seems to have become commonplace in today’s culture.  As a person coming of age in the fifties, I can tell you we didn’t used to do much hugging except with a little kid, a close relative, or a friend who had suffered some kind of painful loss, like the death of a loved one.  Of course, we hugged our boyfriends, but that was usually leading up to something more intimate.

Maybe it started in the late sixties, when hippies were advocating we make love, not war.  I’m not sure. The first time I witnessed group hugging was when my teenage son came home from a church camp, and when I went to pick him up,  all the boys and girls were  going around the parking lot and  hugging each other.  We didn’t do that when we came home from girl scout camp.  So, I knew the times, they were a changing.

Now, there’s even a National Hugger Day in January.

I pretty much tried to adapt and fit into the hugging trend.  I didn’t initiate hugs, but then again, I didn’t resist them.  But I finally drew the line when I took a water aerobics class and encountered a serial hugger.  This lady apparently hoped to a recruit new members  to her particular denomination by  zigzaging  through the water, approaching unsuspecting women, and embracing them while whispering biblical quotations in their ear.  I think some needy women enjoyed that, but I really wasn’t too keen on hugging a sweaty, clammy stranger.  I kept trying to dodge her and hide behind other women, but when  she continued to stalk me with a big smile and outstretched arms, I finally backed away, finding some pretext of doing something else.  She finally got the message and left me alone.  But when we ended up back in  the locker room after class, she usually gave me a dirty look.
So, if hugging is your thing, and all your friends do it, that’s fine with me, but just remember that some people like a little more space.