We Were Never Like That, Right?
She wasn’t having a good day.
The young woman on a pay phone at the Rosauers on 29th fussed at someone on the other end of the line. And when she wasn’t doing that, she snapped at a little girl who was right there with her.
Two elderly women sat just across from the pay phones and watched. They didn’t say a word.
But when the agitated young woman left the store, the two white-haired onlookers laughed.
It wasn’t derisive laughter. Still, it was impossible to know exactly what they were thinking.
So your guess is as good as ours.
1. “Thank heaven we’re not that age anymore.”
2. “So THAT’S what they call child-rearing today?”
3. “Is that what it looks like to have it all?”
4. “There’s no way you could get me to touch a public phone.”
5. “Bet she’s on her way to dump that child at grandma’s.”
6. “I think things would run more smoothly in that family if they put the little girl in charge.”
7. “Maybe one of those share-the-load husbands I’m always reading about will step in and save the day.”
8. “Yeah, yelling — that’ll work.”
9. “Were we ever that frazzled?”
10. “It’s just so impressive how these modern women juggle their responsibilities with such grace and poise.”
* Just wondering: What local person would you like to see in a “Got Lentils?” ad?
* Steering the big boats: Alex Texmo thinks it’s odd that older motorists sometimes have a hard time driving cars but seem to handle mammoth RVs with no problem.
* Out, out, damn spot: A reader named Chris said he refuses to acknowledge numbers written in faux Internetese. You know, phone numbers printed on billboards or in directories as 459.5470, et cetera.
His attitude probably won’t change anything. (He didn’t spell out exactly how his boycott manifests itself.)
But perhaps it’s unwise to underestimate the power of one person standing up against tyranny or trendiness.
* Personalizing mass transit: STA driver Katie Youngren wishes she could outfit her bus with Yosemite Sam “Back Off!” mudflaps.
Of course, drivers don’t get the same bus every day. So if STA allowed personal mudflaps, it might be just a matter of time before she found herself behind the wheel of a bus sporting those trucker-popularized flaps featuring shiny outlines of curvy undressed women.
* Today’s Slice question (complete this sentence): “Spokane men make good second husbands because…”