zxcvbob wrote:

levelwave wrote:
Mark Thorson wrote:

Today I was annoyed by two elderly Chinese ladies picking carrots.
They were taking forever to decide which ones they wanted.



What does the age, race and sex of the customer have to do with the
story?... Not that I care of course... but some ladies here (and I'm not
mentioning any names - Curly Sue) obviously have a *major* problem with
it...

It provides some details to the characters, and a context. It could have
just as easily been any other age, race, or sex -- but it wasn't.

I read just recently that as people age, they become more oblivious
to their surroundings. I believe it, the store I frequent is in
front of senior citizen housing, so I get to shop with a lot of
elderly people. They literally do not have a clue people are
waiting for them to move. I'm not being mean, it's just a fact.

The original story reminded me of a time I wanted tomatoes. Well,
this elderly man (there, I said it) was picking through the tomatoes
with deep concentration. It was a stack of cartons of stem tomatoes.
I waited. Waited. He actually starts unstacking the cartons,
looking for that ONE special tomato. Fine, I'll go find garlic,
maybe he'll be gone by the time I get back. He was gone all right,
replaced by and elderly woman with similar dedication to get just
the right tomato. Neither one had any clue I was standing there
waiting.

nancy