29 March 2009

Adventure at the Grocery Store

I see the weirdest things at the grocery store. Not items, but people & situations. I don't know if it's the county I live in or if I just notice random stuff that no one else notices.

This, however, was out of the ordinary even for me:
Yesterday, as I was checking out, I watched the store manager & another guy rush out of the store with panic in their eyes. Shortly afterward I heard the loudspeaker call someone to their car. I listened and heard it wasn't my car so I didn't panic. I had Kevin's car & if anything is going to go wrong: it's going to be while I'm driving it so I was relieved.

Turns out, a car caught fire in the parking lot, close to the entrance. By the time I was walking out, smoke was bellowing everywhere and you could smell burnt antifreeze. (only I would know what that smells like)

A person could hardly get through the exit for all the people gawking and it became worse as I went outside. (the store has a breezeway) Personally, I was more worried about being able to get to my car more than anything else as I parked far, far away from the entrance. I had already thought of just walking around the store to avoid the excitement but at this point, I was committed.

People are standing twenty feet away from a burning car. A. Burning. Car. FIRE.

As I hear the fire engines approaching, I am trying to weave my way through, skirting close to the building, AWAY from the burning car. As grade school fire safety week taught me: "If there is a fire, run AWAY."

I actually had to say "Excuse me, how about you move Out of the way? That would be great, thanks" with a sarcastic smile that confused them. They looked at me like I was interrupting the last five minutes of LOST. I mentioned later that if the store had passed out popcorn, people would have been happy.

As I'm nearly past the last group of (ahem, stupid) people, I actually heard someone say:
"Well, the gas tank is in the back of the car."

I had to will myself to keep walking. I SO wanted to stop and say:
"Really? How about the oil pan at the bottom of the engine? The fuel lines? How about the radiator? Or the tires? Have you NEVER seen an action movie, you bonehead?"

But, I would rather get myself to safety than to argue with an idiot.

I got to the car safely and they were putting out the fire as I left. I was a little disappointed that I couldn't use my experience for the next episode of Mr Pickles. Wouldn't that have been great? Sit Mr Pickles on the fire engine? Or next to the fire hose?

Luckily, unlike the bystanders, I have sense in my head.

2 comments:

Not Your Aunt B said...

That is crazy. People gawking is the worst. Of course, if it had exploded and they got hurt, they would sue the store I am sure.

Bethany said...

Oh my gosh, that's nuts! I'd probably want to watch, but safety would reason with me...haha.