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I really hate shopping in crowds and so I go early in the morning when there are only other old ladies (or old men) shopping. I am easily irritated, but am right at home with them because I am old too. When I had planned the shopping trip, I carefully laid out my reusable bags by the door and made a list; of course I forgot both. I did have my checkbook and so went to grab a cart. Not needing a cart with a car-seat attached or a cup-holder, I glanced through the rows for a normal cart. I have to wrestle several carts out of the line, which are mostly stuck together by the child seat-belts. Voice on speaker: "Old woman has filled the foyer with carts, and people can not get in or out of the store." Help comes, the nice young man hands me a cart, smiling sweetly. I know he is swearing under his breath as he tries to get the carts out of the way and I would suggest that he needs to make a separate row of carts for old people, and make sure that the little child seat belts are not stuck in the next cart; but he is glaring, so I leave with my prize to buy what I need even though I have no idea what that could be.

As I navigate down one isle after another, I nod and smile at the other old people that are equally confused walking behind their empty carts. I study the shelves to see if there is anything that could have been on the list that I left home; nothing comes to mind so I grab a couple cans of soup, a box of oatmeal, and some toilet paper (old people never can have too much of that) and head to check out. I saw someone with milk in their cart and was reminded that milk was on my list, so back into the isles I go almost knocking over a little old man who was walking without a cart. "Mister, you really need a cart for protection; I could have run you down and your wife would have been so upset." He tells me he doesn't have a wife so I smile and offer to share my cart with him. We walk around for several hours because neither of us can remember why we are there, but we did have a very nice visit and are both coming back tomorrow at 8 am to continue our shopping; hope I forget my list again.

Learn more about this author, Margaret Radisich Sleasman.
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