Story Time.
Sunday morning (2/26/17) I filled my wife’s car up with gas and bought a cup of coffee for myself at a Meridian gas station and become annoyed by a woman who was in line in front of me, as she was purchasing a pack of cigarettes. At issue is not that she was buying smokes, but that she was paying with change she says she “scrounged up around her house.” There was a really nice man at the register, who patiently waited as she began to count it out. (I don’t know how much exactly)
It took her about a couple minutes to count out her change, all coins, when she lost count somewhere between 3 and 4 dollars. Several more minutes passed until she realized, she did not have enough change to pay for the Menthol Slims on the counter. That is about the time she said to the clerk, “Hang on, I’ll be right back.” She then ran out to her car to look under the seats for more change.
As she ran out the front door to her beat up little green car, I handed the clerk 2 bucks for my coffee. I told him she could have whatever was leftover. The man behind the counter smirked at me and said, “you going to make me count it out for her?” We shared a quick laugh and I left.
Driving away I could not help but think about the woman, who clearly had been a smoker for many years, and was so hooked on smoking that when she ran out of cigarettes and had no cash she went through each room in her home to find enough money to get them.
Addiction is a real thing, folks. Cigarettes, Alcohol, drugs, or whatever. I’m glad things don’t have a grip on me like they do some people. Except maybe baseball… OK, and coffee too.
