Sunday, August 1, 2010

Another dream shattered

I was at the grocery the other day, buying, among other things, a bottle of wine. I unloaded the contents of my cart onto the conveyor belt, and when my bottle of Moscato reached the cashier, she said in a bored voice, "I'm going to need to see your ID."

For a brief, shining moment I stood there, bathed in a golden glow of triumph. I may be shaped like a pumpkin. I may have borne two children, had my gall bladder removed, been coloring my hair since I was forty-two and striven to avoid peeing when I sneeze since way before then, but dang! I have still GOT IT. The bloom of youth!!!

I scrabbled through my wallet to pull out my driver's license and as I handed it over with a self-satisfied smile smeared all over my face like jam, the cashier gave it a disinterested glance, handed it back and said, as if she could read my mind, "We have to ask everyone now. Indiana state law...." Her unuttered final words were clearly, "even for our elderly patrons like you."

"Oh," I said, deflated, and pushed my cart out to the parking lot with my head hung down like Tom Dooley's. And then drank an extra half-glass of wine that evening for medicinal purposes.

4 comments:

Sharon said...

LOL!!!!
Take it as YOU want. ;) You got carded!

Kayte said...

I am surprised she is still standing...LOL...just kidding. I routinely tip the bag boys at O'Malias if they will call me "Miss" once in a while. JK.

Amy said...

No way would I ever describe you as elderly. The fact that you're older than 42 is hardly believable.

Unknown said...

Yup. I only had to read one more post to know - are you SURE you aren't a saint of some sort?

Oh, and now you have 19 readers :)