What's My Line?

Yesterday, I was in line at a store. I didn't have a huge purchase, and I ran out on my lunch hour... About 4 people stood in line - and clearly, the lady at bat was having some trouble. The cashier was an older lady, in her 70's, and she was bent over, on the phone, as if she were trying to converse at Beaver Stadium during a bad ref call...

"No. The last number is FOUR. As in ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR... F-O-U-R. Hour - with - an - F-as-in-FRANK...."

Then she did something I've never seen before... She handed the phone and the credit card to the customer. The customer looked more annoyed every second, as did the three in line behind her.

What gets me is that this is CHRISTMAS... The giving of gifts is supposed to be a joyous occasion - one filled with fun, and thoughtfulness and all those good things. Every year, I see lines of people getting angrier and angrier... It might be one thing if the cashier was some kind of moron - but that was clearly not the case... I decided action was the best policy...

I leaned toward the lady in front of me in line and whispered loudly, "I'd give a dollar to know what the heck the person on the other end of the line was saying!"

The whole company laughed... Within a moment, the customer on the phone with the credit card issue handed the receiver back to the cashier, who tried again to make heads or tails of the lady on the other end. In a second, she looked surprised and hung up.

"She hung up and said I had to call back on a better connection..."

The lady at the front of the line explained that she hadn't used the card in a year, so the department store deactivated it.

"Merry Christmas!" I said happily!

Everyone laughed, the lady pulled another card and said, "Use my VISA, please..." And we all got out of there - hopefully a little less miserable...

NOTE: This wasn't my favorite tension-breaking moment... That was reserved for a frenzied postal clerk. I was next in a line full of about ten people, all with huge packages to send... The woman in front of me had a giant ziplock full of pennies, and was taking her sweet time counting...

"This is all I have, except for a twenty."

"I can't make change for a twenty," the postal clerk apologized.

So the change counting continued. Remember Mr. Owl and the Tootsie Pop commercial? Her couting reminded me of him - and beyond... "One. Ta-two-hoo... Threee.... on and on and on...

The entire line was so antsy, and annoyed, I just couldn't help myself. When my turn finally came, I set my package on the desk, looked the clerk in the eye, and said, "Do you have change for a twenty?"

He looked like he was about to explode... His ears actually turned red.

"I'm just kidding!"

Thankfully, he laughed. He could have gone postal.