After all the drama of the know-it-all chronicles, it's kind of refreshing to run across a half-assed, old-fashioned bouncy tale. There's no dialog, but the author goes to great pains to paint a word picture. In fact, there's so much detail she must have been snapping photos like People of Walmart. Anyway, DUmmy Wednesdays has a nice imagination, until she blows it all away at the end:
Wednesdays (1000+ posts) Fri Mar-18-11 11:07 AM
Original message
I witnessed a perfect allegory of the income gap in America last night
I went to refill a prescription at my local Walgreen's last evening. As I was getting out of my car, another car pulled into the parking lot a few spaces down from me--a car barely hanging onto it's (sic) last throes of usefulness. It was a Ford LTD sedan from the 1970s, and it blew thick, black smoke. The paint was bleached from brown to tan, and the tan vinyl roof was half-peeled off. There were several large dents on the body, and one broken window was repaired with clear plastic sheeting and strapping tape. The driver of the car was a forty-something man, whom I assumed was the dad of the family. The other passengers were his wife, a teen daughter, and a grandmother. The man had stringy, bushy dark brown hair, a large mustache, and beard stubble. He looked like he hadn't shaved in a week or had a haircut in a year. He wore a dirty baseball cap, and an old t-shirt and flannel shirt.
As I walked towards the store, I encountered another car, that I can only figure came from nearby Nichols Hills. It was a sparkling white 2011 Cadillac, with tinted glass and white leather seats. The engine was running, and I could hear the whirr of the air conditioner. A woman, around 50 or so, sat in the driver's seat, talking on her cell phone. She had on a rhinestone-studded shirt, designer sunglasses, and perfectly-styled hair with blond highlights. I couldn't see what kind of phone she had, but she held it in her left hand, which sported a wedding band that looked like it was top-of-the-line from B.C.Clark. Scattered around the car were several neatly-packaged and colorful gift bags, apparently in preparation for some sort of celebration. I was curious as to what the story was behind the gifts, but I wasn't about to stare, and so I continued on to the drug store.
While waiting for my prescription to be filled, I browsed the store, when I came across the mother and grandmother from the first car (the daughter was browsing elsewhere). They wore plain old clothes (the mother's jeans were muddy and torn along the cuff), their hair was combed but otherwise plain, and I could smell them from 20 feet away. They were having a minor argument over certain items to buy, and after hearing what they were talking about, I handed them $20 (all the cash I had to spare). They looked shocked, but before they could say anything or try to return the cash, I said something to the effect of, "Well, I just found it lying on the ground, so it's not really mine, anyway." I snuck (sic) away, and made myself scarce until my name was called to pick up my prescription. I did, however, catch a glimpse of the people across the store, while they were in the checkout lane at the front of the store.
You see, they were arguing earlier about which cans of cat food to buy. When they were at the checkout counter, they were carrying several cans of cat food. What do you want to bet they don't own a cat?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x680557All that vivid imagination, and she ruins it with that old cat food myth. What a disappointing bouncy!
CaliforniaPeggy (1000+ posts) Fri Mar-18-11 11:13 AM
Response to Original message
1. You did a really good thing...
Yup, I'm sure they don't have a cat...
God, what a mess our country is.
Damn it.
You probably didn't realize it, but that was today's CalPig poem.
And yes, I know, there was no sexual ecstasy, but still, it was a CalPig poem.
kctim (1000+ posts) Fri Mar-18-11 11:16 AM
Response to Original message
2. I'll bet a hundred that they own a cat
Being on a similar budget as those people, I can tell you that there are things like Ramen, Spam, potted meat etc that are close to the same price or even cheaper than cat food.
I'd bet a hundred they don't exist. Being DUmb enough to believe bouncy tales is one reason DUmmy kctim lives on Spam.
Wednesdays (1000+ posts) Fri Mar-18-11 11:22 AM
Response to Reply #2
5. Cat or no, you'd agree they're probably in dire straits?
Aside from public libraries, they're not likely to have Internet access.
They just need to park next to the Buick and use their iPhones.
kickysnana (1000+ posts) Fri Mar-18-11 11:33 AM
Response to Original message
6. Thanks for posting this. It started my day off positive.
Wednesdays (1000+ posts) Fri Mar-18-11 11:50 AM
Response to Reply #6
9. Thanks. It's a double-edged sword.
Good that one family was shown someone cared, but my narrative also illustrates how far this country has yet to go.
This OP only has ten responses, and half of them are from DUmmy Wednesdays, who started it. She's as bad as the CalPig with her "my dear DUmbass" responses to her own threads.
w8liftinglady (1000+ posts) Fri Mar-18-11 11:33 AM
Response to Original message
7. you did good...it will make a difference. Don't sell yourself short.
Good breeds good in others....maybe they will pass on good to someone in worse shape than them.
I am proud of your actions.
I feel another half-baked leter to the editor coming on.
Wednesdays (1000+ posts) Fri Mar-18-11 11:52 AM
Response to Reply #7
10. True, thanks.
I think it's inspired me to work harder to bring about social change. This is the only major industrialized nation that allows this to happen at such large a scale.
DUmmy Wednesdays is inspired by a car full of deadbeats. We don't call 'em DUmmies for nothing.
