Shopping with the Seniors

Today I HAD to tag along with my dad as he shopped at the super market because I had given my vehicle for servicing and needed a ride back home. I haven’t shopped for groceries in a long time.
As I helped him get everything on the list I realized that there weren’t many people around. Everybody who was there was old and I was probably the youngest shopper. I looked around and saw all these cute old people pushing their carts, pausing at every isle and pondering if they should turn in and see the shelves. There was this one old woman who seemed to remember a new item every time her turn came up for billing. One of the assistants offered to help her but she was adamant about going and picking exactly what she wanted without any aid. She relinquished her spot twice this way and as I watched her I was amused and at the same time pleased to see someone so old being so energetic.

Each billing counter was occupied by an oldie. I told my dad about the woman who kept forgetting items on her list and said our safest bet to get out of the SM early was if we stood behind her. When she remembered yet another item , she  turned around saw us, told the billing lady to continue billing while she went and found the piece from her shopping jigsaw puzzle which was hiding itself somewhere in an isle on a high shelf where this poor old woman couldn’t reach. The billing lady was done scanning all the items for their price and we waited for over 15 minutes for the lady to return. The billing isle next to ours emptied and I ran there like a ninja and placed our purchase on the counter. While we were waiting at the counter I turned to look at the paati to see exactly what she had forgotten. Believe it or not she had picked herself a pack of the toughest murukus available there. She looked at me and gave a toothy grin.

I  miss having old people around me. They are like big wrinkly babies and in a super market they are like kids in a play ground. Some oldies went to the assistants asking why they weren’t getting the item that came free with the product and asking if they could choose their own whistle that came free with a pack of chips, because their grandchild liked orange better than any color. (This was akin to kids in kindergarten taking permission from their teacher to pick a toy of their choice and asking why they couldn’t have a particular toy.)

The 11:00 am to 1:00pm shopping slot in super markets is apparently frequented by Senior citizen’s . Any weekday you go to one you’ll find them there being adorable and annoying all at once.

P.S: My dad is a senior citizen too. He has grey hair and you actually have to sit him down to see if he has any black ones left. He doesn’t have a wrinkly face and that is probably why the old lady thought he was young and relatively stud looking as opposed to all the other grandpa’s there and hence didn’t relinquish her turn when we were behind her in queue. Also my dad may have been flattered that she didn’t think him too old and that is why he didn’t crib about having to wait as long as we did.

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