I leaned against the cold milk cooler, and watched the condensation drip slowly off the milk jugs. It seemed that the warmer the milk got the colder I got. Watching the milk’s temperature slowly rise kept my mind off the angry mob of customers that waited behind the barricade of carts. The store had been without power for an hour and a half, but it seemed like days. The generators were able to power the lights in the store, but unfortunately, there was not enough for the dairy and meat and cheese. We had draped each shelf with a plastic tarp that would preserve the milks temperature until the power returned. My job was to explain to each inquisitive customer that we were temporarily unable to sell any of the cold dairy products. I was told that if we got out even the smallest item than a tiny portion of the preserved temperature would be lost. Repetition of this would result in throwing away a huge amount of the products. As I said earlier, there was a barricade of carts that blocked off the frozen and dairy section. However, I could not help but wonder if this barrier was setup as a guide for the customers or for my own protection. The customers waited impatiently for the power to return. I did my best to be calm and reassuring, but it was to no avail. It was frightening to see how people were getting so upset. “Can you please hand me a gallon of milk sir?” a woman asked from over the barrier. For the twentieth time I explained that, we were attempting to save the cold items and that I not allowed to hand anything out. Man, its so hard telling that to people with a smile and a reassuring look on your face. I was about to go on and inform her that the power would be coming on shortly and that if she would like to wait or even come back later, we would have ready what she needed. But of course she did not wait around to hear this, they never did. She just rolled her cart away and mumbled something about hospitality and how the world was today. “Oh well”, I thought. “I tried.” My manager, Jessica came to check on me every few decades to see if I was all right. She informed me that the power might take even longer to come on. “It will only be at least two more hours,” she said “TWO HOURS”! I thought. In my mind, I could imagine telling the customers that it would be another two more hours and them pelting me with their purses and canned goods. Oh and when I told them I must not forget to leave out the words “at least” and “only”. Jessica must have read my thoughts because as she turned to leave she said, “Maybe you should just tell them about ten minutes”. Oh yeah that was going to help. I could only tell the mob eleven times that it was going to be ten minutes. That is if I even made it past telling them three times. Thankfully, she assigned me two bodyguards, Corley and Cornell. Catchy names, but I was glad to have some company. After the first hour, (which thankfully was very uneventful except for usual dirty looks and swear words) things began to get interesting. I was in the middle of telling a customer about our situation and thinking that things couldn’t get any worse, when the lights went totally out. Oh, boy was I just proven wrong. It was somewhat odd seeing the store pitch black when it was daylight out side. Corly and Cornell, who were up on ladders taping up the holes in the plastic felt their way down and went to the front of the store to get walkies-talkies. It was very quiet in the store now. Which was all right with me because I was a little tired of the moaning and groaning that filled in the silence before? I was also glad that the crowd of people had also dispersed. As soon as that thought went through my head, my Peri-vale vision had just enough time to witness a stout lady in an electric wheelchair come speeding down the aisle and ram herself into the barricade of carts. “This was the end,” I thought. In a short time, the rest of the mob would knock down the rest of the barrier and there would be nothing I could do. I was standing there not quite sure what to do, when the lady’s husband came hobbling over to the barrier, past his wife and into the egg section. The man then proceeded to rip off the plastic and grab three or four cartons of eighteen jumbo eggs. It was then that my senses kicked in. I rushed over just as he hurried back over the barrier of carts, dropping one of the cartons along the way. “E-excuse me,” I said in my bravest voice. “We are not allowed to sell these items at the moment, so I’m going to have to ask you to put it back.” I think it helped that I was at least one and a half feet taller and at least seventy-five pounds heavier. Surprisingly enough I didn’t have any trouble with him putting it all back. He and his wife walked away giving me the most horrid looks. For the next few minutes, I taped back up the plastic and cleaned the egg mess. As I was throwing away the last of the egg soaked paper towels, Corley and Cornell came back. Some bodyguards they were. Not to mention such lovely timing. They explained that they had been up front telling customers at the door about the power. Ok, I’ll buy that. We stood back in the dairy section and talked about the situation we were in. I told them about the stout old lady and her hobbling husband. We were so teary eyed from laughing that we almost didn’t realize that the power had come back on. A crowd bigger then the previous crowds had gathered as close to the barrier as possible. We silently prayed that the command to unwrap the coolers would come soon. I didn’t know how long these people were going to take this and I’m sure Corly and Cornell were thinking the same thing. We didn’t have to worry long because soon Jessica came back to tell us that it was time to unwrap the the coolers. In a short time Cornell, Corly, a few others and I were busy ripping down plastic almost as if the madness and chaos had never happened.
I like to think back to that day and it never fails to make me laugh at things that were so frightening at the time. Its somewhat scary what society will do in order to get what they want. Sometimes I wonder what I would have done in these situations and I always get a different answer every time. Everyone is diverse. Some people may not have chosen to act irrationally and then again it could have been worse. What would you have done?
