Nov 14, 2008

Drama

What is drama but life with the dull bits cut out.--Alfred Hitchcock I may have mentioned that my hardware store is in a lower middle income area. In fact, a lot of the area is below lower middle class. The sights and sounds of the store are a reminder that the other half lives a life far different from mine. Actually, the other half is misleading. Life is really two extremes, the rich and the poor, with about eighty percent of us caught somewhere in the middle. My statistics may be slightly off since I made them up. You get the idea though. Most of us go through life with about the normal amount of ups and downs. These other two groups cause a lot of problems for themselves and for us. It is the old axiom that twenty percent of any group cause about eighty percent of the results. A case in point. A young guy comes into the hardware store today carrying a large, very broken window. Right behind him is a middle-aged woman carrying a large quite broken window screen. It was clear from their appearance and demeanor that they were accustom to a lot of drama. We had a conversation that went like this. Me: Broken window, eh? Guy: My goddamn girlfriend jumped through it. Me: Wha....? Guy: She ran right into my kid's room and jumped right through the window. Me: Sounds like you need a new girlfriend. Guy: Bitch is in jail. Me: Really? Guy: I called the cops on her. Me: Oh. Older Woman who turned out to be his mom: Are you gonna fix this or not? Me: Gotta ask the boss. (go to check) Me: Okay, it will be $40. Guy: Don't care, she (girlfriend) has to pay for it. Me: I'll call you. Now, when was the last time a loved one of yours jumped through a window? See what I mean? A couple of days ago, I posted about thieves in the store. I got another lesson today. A guy stopped me and asked if I had any lye. We sell lye as a drain cleaner. I took him to where we keep it and to my surprise the shelf was empty. I did locate one bottle hidden in the back of the shelf. When I gave it to the guy, he said that he needed more. I went to a computer and check our stock. We should have had 12 bottles on the shelf, not one, so I asked my buddy Bill if he knew where the missing 11 bottle were. "Sure", he replied, "they have been stolen by the meth-heads. They use them to make meth. If your guy is asking for more than a bottle, he's a druggie too." I went back to where I had left the guy, but he was gone. I asked the cashier if a guy and just bought a bottle of lye. "Nope". Go figure. Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong, sometimes just full of it, but always judgmental and cranky

13 comments:

Megan said...

I wish you had gotten a picture of their "appearance and demeanor" - but I have a pretty good mental picture in any case.

Meth is a scourge.

Trey said...

"Lye like a meth-head". [New saying]

bitchlet said...

Don't they have those beeping things at your store? Perhaps not.

I once saw an Oprah show on Crystal Meth. An hour of drama.

Coffee Messiah said...

Wow, 1001 stories in the Naked City! ; )

Reya Mellicker said...

Whenever my housemate plays his acoustic guitar, the dog we call Tonka tries to jump out the window, but nope, can't even imagine wanting or having to jump out a window.

I think it's more of a cultural thing than about money because believe me, I grew up in a very poor family, but we were still Jewish intellectuals, arguing philosophy but never ever ever engaging in physical violence of any kind.

I'm so sheltered I don't even know how meth is taken. Snorted? Smoked? Swallowed? Don't know. Don't want to know. 'Nuff said.

Terri@SteelMagnolia said...

*shakes head*

My husband "beat" is in the crappiest part of town.

...the stories I hear... I yi yi.

Nan Patience said...

Wow, you certainly do get some interesting stories in there. I've developed a little bit of a fascination lately with the evening network news, where you just can't make this shit up.

So true about the few who cause trouble for the rest. It's gotten to where it's hardly possible to have an ordinary life, thanks to all these knuckleheads. I don't want to take it anymore!

Anonymous said...

There are meth labs in rural areas being busted all of the time. We do have restrictions on sales of possible ingredients, and part of the 2006 Patriot Act prohibits the sale of more than 9 grams per month of EPH, PSE or PPA (all over the counter drugs that can be used by meth labs.) now many items are not out on shelves anymore where they can be stolen. Potassium Chloride (lye) is kept out of reach in our local hardware store. You have to explain why you "need" it. Do plumbers still use it?

Unknown said...

I didn't know that about lye. I was looking for some for a science experiment. According to our book, which was printed in the '80s, lye is cheap and readily available where ever laundry detergent is sold. Not so. We couldn't find it anywhere. Now I know why.

Squirrel said...

Hey, never mix lye with sugar--ever! I just read about it on wikipedia.

personally I plan to steer clear of lye altogether.

Steve Reed said...

Maybe it's time to stop selling lye! Do people really need lye nowadays, anyway? (For purposes besides making meth, that is.)

Jams said...

Back in the day, there was a saying that if you wanted your kid to get a real education, make him drive a cab in N.Y. City for a year before going to college. I'm now thinking we can expand that to working in Merle's hardware store for a year. There are educations of all sorts.

mouse (aka kimy) said...

jeepers!!

at grocery stores around here they have baby formula, a seemingly innocent item, locked up like cigs I expect to prevent theft (sad thing) I'd say might be wise for hardware stores and other places to do the same with lye.

love the lye puns of your readers - clever group!