This is who I am

Day Thirteen: A Cranky Old Lady

Posted by Rebecca Tue, 13 Nov 2007 17:25:00 GMT

Early Sunday evening, when I thought my head would implode starting with my eyeballs, Dominic invited me to Rudy’s BBQ for dinner, so I walked across the street and met him there.

We got in line behind this old lady wearing a floral print mumu. I could tell she was cranky, because of the decidedly sour expression on her face that appeared to be willfully and permanently etched there. She hobbled up to the open cashier, who happened to be next to the one we gave our order to moments later.

I gave my order to our cashier and Dominic took over from there, leaving my mind free to wander. I glanced over at the old lady (who I will call Mrs. Cranky) next to us and immediately observed how rude she was being to the cashier, a friendly, smiling, competent young lady who very obviously knew how to take orders and fill them. Every time the cashier asked a question, Mrs. Cranky snapped back with an answer. Her voice was filled with bitterness as she yelled her order to the cashier. She ordered quite a bit of food, so the cashier put it into two bags. Mrs. Cranky yelled at her “I want it all in one bag” and she definitely had several exclamation marks trailing behind her statement. The cashier kept smiling and verified “I’m sorry ma’am, did you say one bag?” To which Mrs. Cranky replied, holding up her scraggly index finger indicating one bag “One bag. One bag. ONE BAG! You aren’t listening to me!”

For those of you who haven’t been to Rudy’s during a lunch or dinner rush, let me assure you, with the buzz of talking patrons, the cashiers shouting orders to the cutters, and the cutters shouting back to to the cashiers, it gets very loud in there and good cashiers verify things often with customers.

I caught the cashier’s eye and gave her a smile, which she returned. After Mrs. Cranky left, the cashier look at me and said “My goodness! That was a test of my Christianity!”

I just laughed. But as we walked away from the ordering line to get our drinks, Mrs. Cranky was complaining to the 16 yr. old cashier at the front register, shaking her god-awful knobby index finger at the girl, and periodically pointing back at the ordering line.

She may have had a bad day, or been suffering from some kind of pain, or maybe she was racist (the cashier was black, Mrs. Cranky was white and old enough to have given birth to Jim Crow), but I’m sorry. I don’t give a crap how old you are or what you think you deserve or how bad of a day you’ve had. There is no reason to disrespect a person who has done nothing wrong to you and is serving you. Sheesh.

I was very glad to get away from such a cranky old person. I hope I don’t end up that way one day.