Humor

When I go out in public.

Yesterday I was at the thrift store and I noticed a "thing" in the furniture area that I could not easily identify and murmured to myself, "what in the hell is that?" It was on the floor but was at least 3ft tall at the corner of the furniture area and the perimeter aisle. There was an older, than me, lady facing the other way but she sort of half looked over her shoulder as if she heard me. As I pardoned myself while getting past her around the corner another woman, probably younger than me, looked at the thing and silently did the same by way of a double take side eye. I was only about eight feet away and caught her response at the thing as I was finishing speaking to the older lady. I pointed at that the thing and said to the younger lady, "That's exactly what I did! What in the hell is it?"

The younger lady and I both moved closer to the thing while on either side of the older lady who now turned around to face us. The thing was a rather simple yet ornate wrought iron affair of rods and ornate scroll work at either end. I then noticed that there were loops for hanging and that it was perpendicular to it's proposed orientation. I said it was something that hangs, while the older lady said, "for pots?" and the younger lady said, "Oh, yeah, a hanging pot/pan rack!" and then we all laughed about it for a moment and how it was a mystery solved by the three of us.

I have some interesting and amusing encounters there. It's a cramped little store with a ton of stuff moving through it every day which lends itself to creating conversation while squeezing past each other. I always wear a mask in there.

I guess I do it for the same reason, I don't get out much and I'd rather have a pleasant encounter with the people I see in my outings than not. Maybe it will make their day... how can that be bad?