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 I
thought I’d make a quick trip into our local “Dollar Tree” to get
some decorations for a birthday party I am throwing. Three of my
besties are having birthdays and we decided to combine and enjoy
them all at once in the comfort of my back yard. As we have
“matured” we like the low-key version of a birthday celebration.
Imagine my horror when I scurried to the party aisle and found
school supplies! I was not a happy camper. I love being able to go
in a store and find exactly what I want…..exactly where it should be
and has been for a long time. The scoundrels at the store had the
audacity to rearrange. And….ANd….AND…...not only did they
reorganize; they lowered the amount of party supplies. Noooooooooo!
My choices went from scrawny to scraggy. I really had to use my
imagination to make a “statement” for my party from the few items
offered for sale. Humph!
From there I went to Hy-Vee to stock up on groceries. It was like a
bit out of “The Twilight Zone”. Hy-Vee had also rearranged. I. Was.
Unhappy.
I’ve read all about why stores rearrange products. It disrupts your
autopilot and you are forced to visually engage groupings you’d
normally skip. There are season shifts, new produce launches,
underperforming products, and on and on it goes. I have to wonder if
all the time and effort of the staff to reposition all the items is
cost effective. It has to take a lot of time to design all that in
someone’s head, then onto paper, then to management for approval,
then for people on the floor to do-si-do everything. For any of you
store managers reading this……. please take into consideration the
amount of exasperation you are causing your customers. Plus…. we
hold a grudge. You will have to really create a wonderous display or
sell some fantastic merchandise to cool our jets and calm us down.
Is the financial math behind rearranging really worth it? Me thinks
not.
Sometimes change can be fun. I read these quotes in Uncommon Quotes,
“Embrace change like a cat embraces a cardboard box: with curiosity
and a bit of confusion.” “When life throws you a curveball, just
pretend it’s a new dance move!” “Change is a lot like laundry:
sometimes, it just needs a good spin cycle.”
As I was cautiously perusing the new arrangement in the grocery
store, I came upon the cutest, little, old lady ever. She was almost
transparent. She could barely push her cart she was so frail. I
wanted to take her home to live with me. I stopped and made friends
with her. She couldn’t find anything and was worried about her
“elderly” husband out in the car. Yes…that made my heart flutter,
too. Anyway, I parked my cart for a bit and traveled the Hy-Vee
world of wonders with her for a while. She had painstakingly written
a list of her necessities and was ever so appreciative of my
willingness to give her a bit of my time and energy. What a
sweetheart she was. I wanted desperately to go peek at her husband,
but I handed her off to the check out lady with the promise that
they would carry her items out to the car for her. There was no need
for me to keep hovering over her and wanting her to adopt me. I
relinquished my role of caregiver and went back to my own
bewildering trip through the unknown aisles of my once familiar
grocery.
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True ending to this story is that my new geriatric friend smilingly
confided to me that she and hubby were now going to “Dollar Tree” as
some things were too expensive to buy at the grocery. I woefully
told her that they, too, had just repositioned the products in their
store. She dolefully grabbed my arm and asked if I thought she
should wait a day or so to go. I advised if it wasn’t something
absolutely needed, perhaps she should go home and rest before she
tackled that next adventure. She squeezed my arm with her little
sparrow-like claw of a hand and thanked me. I wanted to take her and
her hubby home and bake a cake for them.
Cake! Back to the birthday party and what’s needed for that. It is
for three senior saints with three more of us septuagenarians
cheering them on. I’m still wondering how we got to this age so
quickly.
Albert Einstein said, “I live in that solitude which is painful in
youth, but delicious in the years of maturity.” How true this is.
Other than a desperate, constant ache of missing my Mac, I enjoy
being able to hear the clock tick, birds chirp, and cats purr.
We have a band of sisters that adhere to the message of Robert
Frost, “A diplomat is a man who always remembers a woman’s birthday
but never remembers her age.” Age stopped mattering at about 60. We
are an all in cheering section for one another as we grow through
the drama of aging. Only through a group going through the exact
same thing can you turn tears of worry into tears of laughter at
what life throws at you.
Author Michael Marshall Smith, “Hey, presto: time travel. You don’t
need a time machine, it turns out, you just need a friend to laugh
like a teenager.” My friends and I can laugh till our stomach hurts
over things that previously made us cry. We all agree the we can
become more content in growing old than we were in our youth. Faith,
friends, and laughter are the true recipe for a happy life no matter
your age.
As we will celebrate next week with bits and pieces purchased at
“The Dollar Tree”, arranged in a fitting tribute to three wonderful
women we will laugh, advise, and love in abundance. Old Age? Bring
it on!!!!!
L. Maxine McQueen
may be contacted at
maxmac.1@juno.com
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