Oh not Mr. Drysdale from the Beverly Hillbillies. *My* Mr. Drysdale, the manager of “your Tempo store”, the Sault Ste. Siberia “department” store where I worked as a cashier summers during my college years.

Today I was over at plum at the crack of dawn to pick up a few necessaries (or not) and hug my (masked) grock worker. Something seemed a little different today. There was a tall guy hanging around the checkout area being uber-friendly and “helping” people. Like me, when I confused my u-scan musheen by looking up heirloom tomatoes by picture and not choosing the right ones. I hadn’t picked up one with a product number tag on it or I’d’ve entered the *number*. I had actually corrected it but the musheen didn’t clear so the “help” light was flashing.

I texted my grock worker asking about the guy and it turns out it *was* Mr. Drysdale’s 21st century west-side Planet Ann Arbor counterpart. Mr. Drysdale had the same approach to customers, especially when there was a big sale and there *is* a big sale at the plum this week. I don’t think he treated shoplifters with the same demeanor. On the other hand, I can still remember him cheerfully announcing that it was a good day to go collecting! I don’t think the plum probably does much collecting as people don’t (that I know of) buy food via time payments. You pay for it on the way out or you don’t and if you don’t, you don’t take it home. Unless the Mom behind you in line pays for your grocks but that would be a whole ‘nother story.

I totally loved working as a cashier. I didn’t love that I made $1.75 an hour but that was pretty much the going rate for service workers in those days. We got paid in cash in little envelopes and the first time I got paid, the first thing my little brother did was ask me for a “loan”. Jeebus 🤣 I ALWAYS treat cashiers well but when u-scans were first installed in the big grock stores around here, I was ecstatic. Plum didn’t have them until the pandemic but their u-scans are fantabulous and I am a u-scan Ninja. In a way, I’m reliving my earliest childhood career.

I always got along with Mr. Drysdale. I was a good cashier but he was also very friendly with my dad. They were local “businessmen”, a term that used to mean something but we’ll go there some other day (or not). Are either of them watching from beyond as the once young checkout gal swiftly and agilely Ninjas today’s u-scans? Probably not. I love them anyway. And miss them.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 18th, 2023 at 6:20 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.