That Can’t Be Good For His Blood Pressure

I had to make a stop at the grocery store one night to grab three things that I’d forgotten to get during my usual weekly shopping trip. I was in a bit of a hurry, so I grabbed my basket, powerwalked to each item, and then powerwalked straight toward the registers.

As I was heading to the registers, I walked past an older man who was just shuffling along. He was moving in the general direction of the registers, but at a snail’s pace, so I moved past him and made my way up to the self-checkout area.

All six stations were occupied, so I settled my basket on my hip to wait. I pulled out my phone, scrolled through some of my notifications, and then, roughly forty seconds or so after I walked up, a station opened up.

At that same moment, the old man I passed finally made it over to the self-checkout area. He was still around ten feet away from me as I started to walk forward when he piped up.

Old Guy: “Oh, yeah, think you deserve to go first just cause you cut off an old man, huh?”

I paused and very briefly considered turning around to try and justify myself by pointing out how he was nowhere near the lines and how I wasn’t going to just stand behind him as he shuffled through the store on the off chance he was heading toward the registers. But, I realized that there was no way that trying to argue with someone throwing a tantrum over the fact that he was slower than everyone else in the store was going to turn out positively for me, so I resumed walking forward.

Old Guy: “Right! No shame for cutting off an old man; just keep walking. No shame!”

I put my basket down, pulled out and scanned each of my items, and then stuck my card in for payment. Elapsed time, maybe half a minute. In that time, two other people had finished and exited behind me, but the old man continued to stand at the entrance and shout at me about “no shame”. I wasn’t really paying attention to what he said, so that’s the only bit that stuck in my memory.

I finished paying, collected my things, and headed toward the exit, with the guy still shouting after me. I did glance back as I was setting my basket back with the rest near the front, and I got to see a lady cut around the old man, who was still standing at the entrance to the self-checkouts shouting. He turned to start shouting at her, ignoring the employee who was apparently trying to direct him to one of the open registers.

To the old guy, I am sincerely sorry your body and mind are failing you, but I am not willing to act like it is my fault that is happening to you.