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PatchWork by Joyce Whitis |
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PatchWork by Joyce Whitis |
The sign on the front door read, "We will be Closed Friday, July 3 in observance of Independence Day." I pushed open the door, walked inside and went up to the desk. The happy receptionist, a sweet young thing hardly out of her teens, smiled politely but looking at me as if I might hardly be worth the effort, said, "Is there anything I can help you with?"
Leaning across the counter and staring into her blue eyes, I replied, "Maybe it's me that can help you. Independence Day comes on July 4th not July 3rd. You don't need to close on Friday." Then I gave her my very best toothy grin.
She returned my grin with a stare that would have made the Great Stone Face blink. Looking back, it was a pretty mean sort of thing to say and I probably should have just ignored the whole thing but frankly I'm a little fed up with businesses that move the holidays around to suit themselves. Standing up and saying something about this outrage made me feel good right down to my toes.
Now I ask you, is there anything logical about taking off work on July 3rd because the real legal holiday comes on a Saturday which would be a day off anyway? Looks like a drummed up excuse for some extra vacation time to me. Not that they really need any drummed up excuses for vacation time. Some folks seem to be on sort of a permanent vacation with pay.
What really gets my face in a frown is the grocery store check-out girl who maintains a running conversation with the young man sacking my groceries during the checking out process. I'm never sure whether she is more interested in idle gossip with him or in seeing that I as a paying customer am being checked out correctly. Well, as a matter of fact her interest in the young man is pretty evident. She could really care less whether or not I ever come in the store again. I doubt she ever knew that I was there. But she takes my check, hands me a receipt, smiles that cheerless smile and like a worn out recording pipes, "Have a nice day!"
Banks are especially bad about closing at the drop of a hat, and they'll even drop the hat! Government offices seem to slam their doors shut a day or two before any holiday. No sir re Bob you can't expect to find a living soul hanging out in the courthouse one second after the dismissal bell rings for a holiday! They scatter like feathers in the wind but they're no faster nor do they fly higher than all those who live on a salaried income.
You can see them in full flight even thirty seconds early, cars laying rubber in the parking lots as they speed away for THE GLORIOUS WEEKEND!! They want you to have one too because each and every clerk in each and every store in town always smiles, hands you the package with the stuff you just bought and says, "Have a good weekend!" or "Have a nice weekend~!" or the most awful words in the human language, "Have a nice day!"
I am almost sure that they really mean well when they say this but just ALMOST. After all how much feeling is there when those same words are mouthed over and over two-hundred and ten times a day? What meaning is left after the ninety-ninth person has been told to, "Have a nice day." ? Besides all that I might just want to have a really Bad Day sometime! In fact as you get older and maybe meaner, you do have a lot of Bad Days and you don't want some young whipper snapper messin' up your intent on a day like that. They should just keep their Good Days to themselves and let all of us who prefer to have our Bad Days, go through life the way we like.
Now if you really want me to have a Bad Day just tell me that Christmas Day which comes on Friday this year will be moved to the 24th, a Thursday because if not, then some folks will have only a three day weekend and they would be all pinch-faced when they told you to "Have a good weekend!"