Oh! Good Morning Mrs. Wiedelmeyer!

The Story of the Obsequious Store Clerk

"......... into the Valley of Death, Rode the 500;  though it can safely be surmised that all of  the 490 lesser lights in that old horseback riding constellation, and weapon wielding congregation took great pains to avoid  anything so  presumptuous and/or clumsy as to have allowed the front hooves of their horses to inadvertently tread upon, and thereby trip up, the rear hooves of the horses leading the charge, and upon the backs of which sat ten Military Officers and Great and Noble  progenitors of the current branch of the Wiedelmeyer clan; and, fortuitously, many exalted scions of said clan now happen to reside in our fair, and quiet, and peacefully upscale suburban community.............."




Unbeknown to me, such were the wandering and fanciful thoughts of the unoccupied clerk when I innocently walked into the Hardware Store on that morning, with the simple objective of purchasing a roll of blue painter's tape.


I was sent to pick up the tape and get back to the job in a hurry-- to get outta there-- so there was no time for delay. The Boss was waiting, and he was mad at the way I had dropped the last roll we had into a five gallon bucket of paint. 


The hardware store clerk was standing behind the counter, and staring out the large picture window at the front of the store, and at Mrs. Wiedelmeyer's Classic Two-Tone, Vintage Rolls Royce Fleetwood Convertible Silver Cloud (Special Limited Edition).


Since I was in a hurry, as I say, I was relieved to see that I was the only customer in the store, and so, with the prospect of a swift purchase and exit in mind, I headed for the aisle that contained the painting tools, supplies, and accessories. It wasn't hard to find the aisle, since it had a sign hanging atop that said as much.


The blue tape was there, in two different degrees of stickiness, and in three or four different widths,  sandwiched between neatly arranged individual sandpaper sheets for sale of equally diverse varieties of roughness or "grit",  and the organized assortment of 9X12 rolls of plastic sheeting, which came in two different thicknesses. 1ML or 2ML. (the 3ML came in larger rolls (Check for accuracy)


I grabbed a roll of tape that suited my needs on that particular day, and headed back to the counter.


The clerk looked at me, expressionless, and was about to speak......when.......his gaze went a bit higher and past me, and, with a broad smile he said:


"Oh! Good Morning Mrs. Wiedelmeyer!

To Be Continued