On Sunday, my son and I made the weekly trip to WalMart (10 Mile and McMillian) to pick up a few things. Upon pulling into the parking lot, I was about to pull in a spot when an older woman pushed her cart into the spot and began to get in her Burgundy Buick SUV in the adjacent spot. She could have pushed her cart back to the “Cart Corral” or whatever you call it, but that’s not what she did. She left it sitting in the middle of the spot, while I was politely waiting to park there.
I rolled down my window and politely said, “Excuse me ma’me.”
“Yes,” she said hesitantly, as she looked at me over the top of her sunglasses.
“Ma’me, you left your cart in the spot I was about to pull into,” I said.
God as my witness, this sweet looking older woman who is somebody’s Grandmother shrugged her shoulders and said, “Yeah, so what.” She then got in that Burgundy Buick SUV and drove off.
Blood boiling, I was about to put my car in gear and ram that freakin’ cart into her SUV. THAT would have felt pretty good, but it was my son’s voice that snapped me out of it.
“Dang, that was NOT cool” he said.
I sat there for another second to calm down, then got out of the car and moved that mean old woman’s grocery cart and parked my own car.
I guess I could always use a little more good karma. More than that, it was a teachable moment between my son and I. He is 13 and asked, why I did not let her have it? I told him, I could have yelled at her and made a scene, but it would not have done any good. She would still be a grouchy, and you just never know what’s going on with people. I joked, “Maybe she pooped her pants and was in a hurry!” He laughed and that was the last we talked about it, until we got home and he decided to tell his Mom what happened.
He said, “Hi Mom, Dad wanted to run over an old woman in the parking lot, but decided to be nice instead because she might have pooped her pants.”
My wife’s eyebrows raised and she looked at me. I smiled, “Yeah, I’m a pretty nice guy” I said.
Just be nice, folks. Your kids are watching.
