I had never experienced anything quite like it. To say I was shocked would probably be an overstatement, but I certainly didn’t see it coming. I wouldn’t necessarily call what happened an accident, because I believe, quite frankly, that he did it on purpose. I’m not saying it was premeditated, but I sincerely believe his actions were intentional. At best, it was a case of negligence, perhaps out of a fit of anger, and no doubt, a prime example of rudeness demonstrated by a fully-grown individual…but perhaps not fully mature. Now before your imagination goes too far, I’m not speaking about a person being hit, hurt or killed. There was; however, a mess to clean up, but we had plenty of tissue paper, if needed.
My day had begun well. As I left to go play pickleball, Jean asked me to stop by the store on my way home to see if our favorite coffee was on sale. I will confess we are coffee snobs. The brand we love most is not the cheapest, so we usually stock up when it’s on sale. I already knew that my nearby supermarket was planning to go out of business soon. I did not know that they had already marked almost everything in the store down by 30%. I not only loaded up my shopping cart (known as a buggy in Alabama) with cheap-priced expensive coffee, I also filled it with everything else I could squeeze in. I had grabbed a small cart when I entered the store, because I didn’t know about the sale. By the time I reached the third aisle, my buggy needed sideboards. Since I didn’t have space inside the basket for that large case of bathroom tissue, I wedged it onto the wire shelf on the back.
As I approached the crosswalk to head into the parking lot, I saw his car rapidly approaching. I didn’t think he was going to stop for me, so I stopped for him. Yes, I do know pedestrians have the right-of-way, but that doesn’t stop some drivers who don’t want to stop from running over said pedestrians. Finally, he slammed on brakes and angrily motioned me across as he muttered something about my pedigree. I figured I had better hurry across before he changed his mind.
I was so preoccupied with his car that I didn’t even notice that my case of tissue had fallen off in the middle of the crosswalk. The lady behind hollered, “Sir, you’ve lost your toilet paper!” When I abandoned my buggy to retrieve my TP, I then lost my buggy, too. I had stopped, but my cart raced on, on its own, toward a parked car as I ran toward my case of Scott tissue. I helplessly watched as the frustrated and impatient driver sped forward and right over my case of tissue. I shouted “Great Scott tissue! Stop!” He never slowed down. That’s when I heard the other lady shouting, “Sir, your buggy is rolling away!” Since the damage was already done to my tissue, I sprinted toward my racing buggy. The kind lady beat me to it before it slammed into a car.
I have now been witness to a case of hit and roll, I mean run, but I am also the proud owner of a case of flattened rolls of toilet paper with tire marks on it.
The Bible says, “Blessed are those who wait upon the Lord.” It’s also a good thing to wait upon the pedestrian in the crosswalk, especially when he has lost his case of tissue paper.
Bill King can be reached at bkpreach@yahoo.com or 334-728-5514 (office).
