Mar 2, 2004

I've told you more than enough how much I hate retail! But I don’t think I have taken the time to tell you about the rather beautiful part of this world. Around Christmas, there is the normal hustle! People elbowing and yelling children screaming and crying...and than there is a miracle far beneath all this madness! I remember when it first happened, I didn’t believe it to start, but than the tears that i seen...made me think twice. What happened!? Well, there is this gentlemen who is in our store often. He's nothing to marvel at, no, blinding smile, no gallantly perfect complection...just a graying buzz cut and a slightly larger physique. I know now that there is more to this man, for he is one of those amazing people in this world. People we all strive to be, or at least meet! It was about 2:30pm in December; and the store was PACKED to the him-ho! But somewhere in between muttering obscenities and wrapping the millionth bratz doll, I look up, and there is this woman...she's just pouring tears. She's slowly loading two carts worth of toys onto the belt, looking at me, than looking at the toys and only glancing at this older man who’s at her side. All I could think at the time was " Shit, this lady is going to try to pull something on me! She's lookin really shady! Or, her boyfriend is fighting with her, god! So close to Christmas...sick!" But I was horribly wrong! Before the woman could even finish, the man pulls out his check book, rips out a blank check, and tells me he has to use the restroom. He leaves his wallet and signs the check, as he walks away he asks that I write the check out and he'll be back in a second. He leaves and I look up confused at the lady. The second he is gone the lady turns to me gushing! " OH MY LORD!" Me: What? Woman: That man! It's like god sent him right to me! OH MY WORD!" Me: (In my head..."Riiiiggghhhttt!") Woman: He...He...was just walking around, and my boy ( looking to her son who’s just leaning up against one of the carts) my boy started to talk to him, the man asked who we where buying all the toys for and he told him " People my mom doesn’t even know!" I explained to him, it was half for family, and half for charity...and he just looked at me, and said " well Mam, If you can get to the registers in about 10 min, I'll buy everything for you" I kinda laughed but he pulled out his wallet right there and took my cart! I can't believe it!" Now...lemme intervene in her story right here: She herself was a smaller looking woman. She spoke with a deep southern accent. But more than anything...she didn’t look like she would be the kind handing out to charity. Actually...she looked like the kind to be picking it up. There is NOTHING wrong with getting help! And that's not where I'm trying to go here, what I am saying is that this lady, know that no matter how little she had, it's still more than most others have, and she decided that it was a good thing to try to make others happy! These two miracles found each other in the middle of our store. This place I often curse and dread! Beyond the slobbering children and stressed out parents, they created something that effected everybody that day. If you could only see my face when she told me: Disbelief...amazement..confusement..excitement....honor!? I was honored to be there to see this. And you know what...it didn’t stop there, He came back, again and again, doing this for many other people. The lady herself came back and bought more toys and blankets, saying: " well, I have more money that I can put twords them now! I didn't plan on going home with it, no sense in wasting it!" Every time I get pissed off as hell...I remember her face and think, well, I can either think the world is a psycho and walk away, or look it straight in the face and shake its hand. What brings this whole damn thing up? The man, who is an often guest in the store came in yesterday to return some pants. As we talked I finally gathered all my ego and muttered something like: You know your doing amazing things when I know who you are, and so does the rest of this store, you’re an amazing person for doing what you do!" He looked my straight on, and shook my hand. He than did what he is famous for and grabbed the money I had just given him for his return and tried to give it to me " Buy yourself some lunch" Me: Haha, no, thanks, but, no...you go do something better with it. I slipped it back in the bag and he headed off. Haha, what a day that was. People yelled and screamed, but for a strange reason, it didn’t matter to me that day. I just smiled and nodded, and remembered the look on that ladies face. Im cheesy

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