AND THE WORLD STOOD STILL!

The other day I was in Stop & Shop, the supermarket that is so big, they put the same products in two locations.

As I got to the checkout, the lights went out! A storm was raging with torrential rains outside and someone usually hits a poll in protest with their vehicle and causes the lights to go out and this was the probable case.

The big store sat in utter silence, no noise no movement, everyone looking up. Was this the end? Was this judgment day? Maybe Jesus was going to smite the store manager for his prices?

The lady in front of me stood there looking straight ahead at the self-check out, a bag on onions on the scale.

“To think, I was almost out of here!” she said.

We were informed that we had to go to cash only purchases at another register, and the whole line shifted.

A woman ahead of us took out her debit card to test it and it worked, a sigh of relief going through the line: “It takes debit and credits!” Suddenly it seemed brighter without the lights on. Even the bored check-out girl suddenly attacked her job with a new and happy determination.

Now when I was living in Brooklyn, back in the day, when you went to the grocery store, the grocer would take out a crisp new brown bag, place it on the counter, then proceed to put the prices on it in a column in crayon and tally it up.

In those days there was no credit cards, no debit cards, they had this fool proof system instead. With the system you never ran the risk of someone stealing your identity or charging huge run ups of money against you. It was a clever system called cash, and it was indeed safe.

If the lights went out, there was always candles and matches: and you could still count. The bag came out manually as the counting was done with a human brain, and you could participate in the counting yourself, thus sharpening your math skills while keeping yourself sharp! It was amazing!

The curious thing is how out of place everyone looked, mothering the same phrase: “We have to wait for the registers to reboot. Did you hear? They have to wait for the registers to reboot!”I was so proud of my  fellow shoppers, talking computer and everything! 

As I got to check out, the little girl hacking away at her gum and punching in numbers, I said: "You are a very brave girl under these trying circumstances!

And so the world stood still for a moment in time, but thank God, it too will reboot.