By Jody Worsham
All rights
reserved for New England LED Lantern
Where was
Moses when the lights went out? If you
said Wal-Mart you are right. Well,
Moses, Bobbie, Sharon, Jerry, Steve, me and about 200 other people. We were all in Wal-Mart the other day when
the store lost power.
Now losing
electricity is a common occurrence when you live behind the Pine Cone
Curtain. Tall pine trees, shallow root
system, soaked earth, and a gentle breeze will almost guarantee falling pines
and downed power lines. And when you are at home it can be an inconvenience for
an hour or two or eight but when you are in Wal-Mart, well that is a black-out
of another color.
I was on my
second visit of the day to Wal-Mart.
Hey, some social media folks hound Facebook hourly; I choose to wander
the aisles of Wal-Mart two or three times a day. My face appears on their video tapes so much
that the employees call me by name. As I
went up and down the aisles noting which brands had moved up to eye level on
the shelves and which ones had dropped to the bottom shelf, I heard the
thunder. A few minutes later the lights
flickered, then went out. As I looked all the way down action alley I could see
the rain pounding the pavement. Might as
well see if Pedigree had been bumped to the bottom shelf by Beniful.
“Jody, lease make
your way to the front of the store” came from a silver haired lady wearing a
blue vest.
“I can do
that, Madge.”
I moved
toward the front of the store thankful for the skylights and noted the bakery
and frozen food area had full lights. A generator no doubt. Donuts and TV dinners rule!
As I arrived
at the front of the store, I glanced behind me.
It looked like the Spanish Armada of shopping carts was descending on
the unmanned check out stations. Ten minutes passed, fifteen, twenty. Pools of melting ice cream spread between
ships of the Spanish Armada. Previously
frozen pizzas took on the shape of bottles and boxes beneath them in the
carts. Blue vests, maroon vests huddled
with long sleeved-white-shirts-and-tie types. At one point a blue vest went
from aisle shouting that it would be at least an hour possible more before power could be restored and the cash
registers would be up and running. At
that point it was as if someone had shouted:
ABANDON CARTS!
Wal-Mart
emptied faster than a Baptist church on game day with a 12:10 kick-off. The abandoned Spanish Armada was left
becalmed on a sticky sea. I hesitated
wondering what to do about the half consumed Coke in my basket and the opened
package of M&M’s beside it. Hey, I
got thirsty and hungry waiting for the lights to come on. Being basically honest, I asked a Blue Vest
what to do. “Just forget about it.” So I did.
Not knowing
what the Wal-Mart policy was on semi-melted food, I was a little wary of any
Wal-Mart “Specials” the next day. However,
I did notice Moses stocking up on ice cream and misshaped pizzas.
