Hi Cindy ~ Just read your Wal-Mart story and it reminded me of a big trip to Wal-Mart my young son, Maxi, and I made several years ago.
We live in a small resort town on the coast of Maine, so shopping in a big store can be rather an event requiring a trip out of town. He was just 3 at the time and Easter was the next day, so I decided to take him to Wal-Mart for Easter Shoes.
Going anywhere with Maxi is always an adventure, he is such a happy little thing. So we walked the several blocks to the first bus stop and climbed aboard. The kid was thrilled to be riding someplace rather than hiking all over creation with me, and he chatted up a storm the whole way through the next town down the coast and into the one after that as well. It seemed like it was going to be a great day when suddenly I got quite the shock when the bus driver informed me that the bus no longer went all the way to Wal-Mart but stopped nearly a mile short!
We got off the bus and I stood there for a moment looking down that very busy four lane road. The distance wasn't the issue...it was the traffic and walking with my little boy. So I put him on the far side, away from the road and we set out. Just the week before, Maxi had decided he was a tap dancer and so of course he had to "tap dance" along the shoulder of the road, happy in the sunshine, singing a little song. I was a nervous wreck, but he was in paradise.
Got to the store, lifted Maxi into the cart, and the elderly greeter noticed a tick on his leg and pulled it off of him before it could bite. So GLAD to have been walking along the road with the tall grasses so close. Anyway, we found just the perfect dress shoes for him and on a splurge, a sporty pair too. While we were shopping, we noticed this family with three children...two of whom were acting completely out of control. Maxi kept staring at the kids wide-eyed and then turning to look at me as if to say "Mama, can you believe it?" his little eyebrows hiked high up on his forehead.
Once we finished shopping, I decided to call a cab to take us back to our town. It would be expensive, but MUCH better than walking with Maxi and our bags all the way back to the last stop to wait for a bus from a company I was mad at. While we were waiting, we sat on the bench, Maxi still singing and playing his little games. The next moment, the family with the ill-behaved kids came through the door with the store manager holding the mother's arm. They were being ejected from the store for carrying on so much! How embarassing for that woman. I looked away to give her some privacy, but she sat down right beside me and started to pour her heart out about her bad kids. I didn't quite know what to say, so I made sympathetic noises. Maxi still looked utterly surprised watching her kids be naughty for no apparent reason. Found out the mom had brought them in to have pictures taken.
Finally, our cab came and the other mom and her kids piled in the taxi along with us for the short hop to her place. I made more sympathy noises, I think.
Relieved to be at home again with my agreeable little one, I enthusiastically opened the box of his new dress shoes to find out the box was filled with TWO LEFT SHOES! I couldn't believe my eyes. Saturday afternoon before Easter Day and I bought my kid two left shoes.
He was just as happy wearing the sporty ones I had also bought him, and no one even noticed that he wasn't wearing the dress shoes I was so certain he just HAD to have.
Ohhhh, I hate shopping at Wal-Mart, particularly since they "super-sized it" a year or so ago....
Merme
Well, HALF of it got to my brain!
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