Sometimes people scare me

[Lyn-Del]

Every generation has questioned the viability of the generation(s) that follows.  Somehow, man has always survived.

But sometimes I have to wonder HOW?

I went to Lowe's today to pick up a few things we needed at the house.  Went to the checkout counter, got my purchases rung up and swiped my credit card.  While I was fumbling with my purse and trying to get my card back into my wallet and the wallet back into the purse the clerk hands me the receipt.  With both hands full at that moment, I asked her to put it in a bag.  I MEANT one of the five bags sitting in the shopping cart waiting for a ride to the truck.  I assumed it was obvious.

Imagine my surprise when, while unloading the cart into the truck, I found a plastic bag with *nothing in it but the receipt!*

If I were a gambling person, I'd bet that that young lady is one of those that constantly remind people to "go green"

[Devl]

I hear ya!!  Sometimes you just have to say.....HUH ???   WTH???  Common sense...whats that   The future looks pretty scary...indeed

[Steve K (IA)]

I may regret this......was she young and "Blonde"?    I'm bettin'

[RoadKill]

I may regret this......was she young and "Blonde"?    I'm bettin'

I dunno about "blonde" but young and spoiled is a given. Probably will get suicidal when the cable T.V. goes out.

[Lyn-Del]

Young, yes.  Blonde?  Far from it!

[FryeVRCCDS0067]

Ha! Had to go share that with Mel. 

[bscrive]

The Death of Common Sense

By Lori Borgman
Three yards of black fabric enshroud my computer terminal. I am mourning the passing of an old friend by the name of Common Sense.

His obituary reads as follows:

Common Sense, aka C.S., lived a long life, but died from heart failure at the brink of the millennium. No one really knows how old he was, his birth records were long ago entangled in miles and miles of bureaucratic red tape.
Known affectionately to close friends as Horse Sense and Sound Thinking, he selflessly devoted himself to a life of service in homes, schools, hospitals and offices, helping folks get jobs done without a lot of fanfare, whooping and hollering. Rules and regulations and petty, frivolous lawsuits held no power over C.S.

A most reliable sage, he was credited with cultivating the ability to know when to come in out of the rain, the discovery that the early bird gets the worm and how to take the bitter with the sweet. C.S. also developed sound financial policies (don't spend more than you earn), reliable parenting strategies (the adult is in charge, not the kid) and prudent dietary plans (offset eggs and bacon with a little fiber and orange juice).

A veteran of the Industrial Revolution, the Great Depression, the Technological Revolution and the Smoking Crusades, C.S. survived sundry cultural and educational trends including disco, the men's movement, body piercing, whole language and new math.

C.S.'s health began declining in the late 1960s when he became infected with the If-It-Feels-Good, Do-It virus. In the following decades his waning strength proved no match for the ravages of overbearing federal and state rules and regulations and an oppressive tax code. C.S. was sapped of strength and the will to live as the Ten Commandments became contraband, criminals received better treatment than victims and judges stuck their noses in everything from Boy Scouts to professional baseball and golf. His deterioration accelerated as schools implemented zero-tolerance policies. Reports of 6-year-old boys charged with sexual harassment for kissing classmates, a teen suspended for taking a swig of Scope mouthwash after lunch, girls suspended for possessing Midol and an honor student expelled for having a table knife in her school lunch were more than his heart could endure.

As the end neared, doctors say C.S. drifted in and out of logic but was kept informed of developments regarding regulations on low-flow toilets and mandatory air bags. Finally, upon hearing about a government plan to ban inhalers from 14 million asthmatics due to a trace of a pollutant that may be harmful to the environment, C.S. breathed his last. Services will be at Whispering Pines Cemetery. C.S. was preceded in death by his wife, Discretion; one daughter, Responsibility; and one son, Reason. He is survived by two step-brothers, Half-Wit and Dim-Wit.

Memorial Contributions may be sent to the Institute for Rational Thought.

Farewell, Common Sense. May you rest in peace.

[YoungPUP]

And people wonder why animals eat thier young....

[Chrisj CMA]

And people wonder why animals eat thier young....

and these people get to vote!

[Moonshot_1]

I've worked in retail. If a customer told me to put their reciept in a bag I would have likely done just what that checker did. Put it in a bag. I would have thought the customer to be nuts, and I have no doubt you were the talk of the day in the breakroom, but that is what you asked for so that is what I would do. For all I know there may be a perfectly sane reason for such a request and I'm not going to question a customer about such a strange request.

Now I know that isn't what you wanted. You just wanted the reciept in one of your filled bags. But that is not what the clerk heard. You told her you wanted your reciept in a bag, she put it in a bag and didn't question your logic. That is customer service.

[wizard -vrccds#125]

Moonshot, NOW YOU SCARE ME !   ???

[czuch]

Some folks just wouldnt be happy even if ya hung em with a NEW rope.

[Master Blaster]

Some folks just wouldnt be happy even if ya hung em with a NEW rope.

Was a favorite saying of my dads who had lotsa common sense.  Sometime he would mofify it in dire situations by replacing NEW with silk.

[Chiefy]

I'm a boomer.  The generation that decided they knew anything and everything better.  Nothing was good enough until we farted around with "it" and ruined whatever it was we were farting around with.  Maybe this girl was a Rhodes scholar that was totally bored with the only job she could get in the modern baby-boomer run business world.  You know that world, companies demanding half the employees do triple the work in 25% less time.  Give them 30 hours a week so that you don't have to offer benefits.  

For a generation that supposedly was content with only whatever money we needed to live, we sure kicked the living poop out of the golden goose.  Eggs! EGGS!!!  Lay more eggs, faster! Faster!!!

Only hope that Gen X gets their heads on straight before America is totally down the drain.

God bless the Younglings.  They're going to need all the help they can get after what my generation did.

[ValhallaIamComing]

... and she will probably still be a supermarket checkout girl 20 years from now!

[chuckinVA]

Any optimism I had for the future of this country got shot in the azz one day when I bought some small items at a museum in Northern Va.   Total came to $2.37 and I gave the young man on the register, a five.  He looked at me for a few seconds, then turned around and asked his manager, "how do I make change for this?"  He appeared to be 17-18 years old and had no idea how to make change.  Sad, sad, sad.   

[JimC]

Lack of common sense.

I was a a Jr Olympic basketball tournament with my son in the mid ninety's. The boys game got over at about 1pm, so we decided to go down the street to McDonald's for lunch. When we got there about 1:30pm (after the normal noon rush) there were two cashiers working the counter.

Well we were not the only ones that had a game end about that time, so there were probably 60-70 people standing in line waiting to order food. Just as we were getting to the front of the line, I see the cashier in front of me reach down and put of a sign that said CLOSED.

I looked at her and said "YOU ARE KIDDING, RIGHT?" and she looked at me in with as straight a face as someone with a room temperature IQ could do, and stated " MY BOSS TOLD ME THAT I HAVE TO SPRAY FOR FLYS AT 2PM"  and then proceeded to walk away from the counter and started spraying the windows to kill the flys.

At that time about 25 people walked out of the place and went next door to eat.

Jim

[Hef]

I too had a "What" experience. I was checking out in department store and the young lady who was the clerk told me my total was $19.04. I had no coins on me so I gave her a twenty dollar bill. My daughter said "here Dad, I have a nickel."  I handed the nickel to clerk and she said "Oh no sir, you don't need to give me a nickel, I owe you 96 cents." I said "but I want to give you a nickel and you give me a dollar and a penny back. She said, "but the register says I owe you 96 cents." I gave up trying to get her to understand and took the 96 cents, put a penny in my pocket, handed her the 95 cents left over plus my nickel and said "may I exchange this for a dollar." You will not believe the reply!  She said "Are you one of those quick change guys who cheat clerks. All I could do was laugh and said "yeah, and you caught me trying to take you for a dollar???????"
   

[Lyn-Del]

When I was learning to run a register, the rules I was taught were similar to those for cops  (as I understand, cops should NEVER take your entire wallet, but I got stopped by one who did!)- I was NEVER to touch the customer's cash until it was given to me.  Once it was passed to me, the bills were left in sight (though out of customer easy reach).  That was to prevent the customer from accusing me of taking a 20 and making change for a 10, etc.

These days, I constantly have clerks reaching for money I'm counting on the counter - I may have set down $4, looking for the required change, I may have put down a quarter just in case I don't succeed in digging out the .19 I owe, etc.  The clerks just reach over and pick up what I have on the counter, and get upset when I ask for it back because I'll have to give them a $5 or whatever.   They've all but reached into my wallet for me.

I've had carhops assume the change is their tip - not too bad when I give them a $5 for a $4.59  purchase, very upsetting when I gave her a $20 for the same purchase.  

Some 25 years ago, a friend owned a pizza place.  One new employee, it turned out, only knew how to make change in DIMES.  She could get it to the nearest ten cents, then counted out dimes to make the dollar.  She was sent home with a stack of receipts and a note to her mother to not let her come back until she could make change.

[Rocketman]

Some 25 years ago, a friend owned a pizza place.  One new employee, it turned out, only knew how to make change in DIMES.  She could get it to the nearest ten cents, then counted out dimes to make the dollar.  She was sent home with a stack of receipts and a note to her mother to not let her come back until she could make change.

I love the homework story.  When I worked as a soda jerk, there was a button on the register labeled "00".  It was commonly used for punching in even dollars, as in "4", then "00" for four dollars.  I would scandalize my coworkers by using it if someone handed me a 20 and 4 cents, punching in "2", then "00", then "4".  They swore it was only for even dollars.
They also hated it when I didn't let the machine calculate change for me.  I figured if I was going to work a job that didn't require any mental exercise, the least I could do was a little simple math.

Side note: I had to work a lot last week to teach my daughter how to count up change, using quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies.  She did have some trouble getting it, but in her defense, she's only 5!

[Rocketman]

Oh, and if I was in that clerk's spot, i might have done the same thing, just to amuse myself.  I could have grinned all day thinking of the baffled look on your face, the one I never even got to see.

[Lyn-Del]

Have you tried telling a clerk they've given you too much change?  Generally, the reaction is as dramatic as if I'd just asked them to donate a kidney to someone on Death Row!  They tell me that the register told them how much change to give, so they can't be wrong.  Too bad the one whose register told her to give me back $10,000+ in change didn't fall for it........