Monday, January 18, 2010

Interesting Conversation

Sometimes I am just amazed at what people will tell me when I serve them at work. I work in the Chinese deli at Dillon's. Sometimes people will tell me about their day, others will complain to me about their kids or something they can't find in the store. During some of these times I wish I had a video camera to capture these moments.
Take for example today. It was really REALLY slow today. I believe that we had a total of 50 people all day. There were a couple people who just really cracked me up. The first customer that I served today was was the funniest that I have met in a long time. She was really busy and her phone kept on ringing but she kept trying to have a serious conversation with me about the horrible weather and how the dense fog is such a bad thing for the environment and the how its messing up her cat's digestive cycle. It was hilarious!
Another person I talked to today was a regular of ours. He's deaf and I've learned some basics of sign language and I tend to mess up some of the signs sesame chicken and anything that has chicken in it. I don't know I just mess up signing "chicken". It comes out meaning something totally different. Like today it came out "cleaning". I don't know where that came from it just happened. All I know is that this guy just totally busted up laughing and I felt foolish. Ah well we figured it out in the end. We had a good laugh about it though.
However, I really wish that I had a video camera on Thursday night. It was winding down after the dinner rush and this one older gentleman came in in a motorized wheelchair and he had on a breathing tank and he was in a talkative mood. After I finished serving him and rang him up he started talking to me about college and what I was planning on doing with my life. I told him about my filmming and how I loved making documentaries. I told him that I'd like to do a documentary on the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and everywhere else and how this affects the women who serve while they're there and after. Well anyway, he thought that was a great idea nd he started talking about his time when he was stationed in Germany in WWII. I learned so much from him in a span of about 30 minutes and I know that if I could talk to him longer I would get a lot of good stories out of him and learn so much about the stuff that we didn't see in the press. It was amazing. He told me of some of the families that he helped and the people who served with him. He told me in particular about this one family. They didn;t speak a word of english but they were so greatful to him and the unit that all they could do was cry and hug them. In 1984 he recieved a letter from the youngest child in the family. He had grown up and he had moved to America. He was living in New York and he had found this man who saved his family and he wanted to thank him. Last year he came to visit this gentleman. This was awesome to me. I got to talk to a real hero. A man who sacrificed 5 years to help these families in Germany and Austria. He gave up 5 years of seeing his family. He gave up seeing his first daughter born and the first few years of her life. This man is a true hero. I would love to talk to him again and I can't wait for him to come in again so I can talk to him some more.
I learn so much from some of these people and other people I just want to laugh at. Although there are days when I just want to yell at some of these people and tell them to grow up!. Oh well, people are people and everyone is different. I guess we just have to put up with everyone else because they put up with us right? Before I close I just have to ask of you parents and guardians this, "Please don't allow your kids to put their hands and faces on the glass case because it is horrible to clean up. Also please don't put your hands on top of it either, I have to clean that and I can't totally reach the top with out a step stool." Anyway, I look forward to Wednesday and the new people to make me laugh and the new lessons to learn, and the interesting people to meet.
I'll catch ya on the flip side!-p

1 comment:

  1. It's hard being short isn't it? All kinds of things to learn daily. Add it all to your list of experiences and remember no matter what, EVERY single person that comes in will teach you something if you allow it. Some of my greatest memories are my coffee shoppe jobs and what I learned about people.

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