Part II
Part III
Part IV
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Souvenir Shopping and Sweet Old Men
It was going to be "browsing" rather than "shopping."
We were meandering through a small shop full of the usual souvenir suspects. I was poring over postcards with Ramona when I heard an unmistakable sound. Something had broken. I glanced over and saw that it was my daughter, not someone's else errant child, who had the mortified look on her face. I rushed over.
"What happened?" I asked Anne, who had the look of a deer caught in the headlights.
"I don't know," she said, as if in shock. "I was looking at this pretty candle, and I ... dropped it, and ...." her voice trailed off as together we looked at a broken shot glass on the shelf below.
"Was it already chipped like that?" I asked her.
"I don't know ... I don't think so," she said, clearly horrified.
"Well, then, we need to go show it to the clerk and pay for it," I told her.
"I'm so sorry, Mom!" she burst out. "I didn't mean to break it!"
"I know you didn't," I told her, "but we can't just leave it here. We need to tell them."
We made our way to the cash register with the broken shot glass, a rather tacky little piece of business with "Got Ghosts?" imprinted on one side, and a picture of ghosts and the words, "Gettysburg does" on the other (we were so put off by all the tourist-y ghost stuff in Gettysburg -- such a sad trivialization of the horrors of war.)
Atticus presented it to the elderly gentleman behind the counter, and said, "My daughter accidentally broke this, and we need to pay you for it."
Misunderstanding, the sweet gentleman said, "Oh, well, go back and get one that isn't chipped!"
Atticus said, "No, I'm sorry, you've misunderstood me. We didn't plan to buy it, but we've broken it and want to pay you for it."
It took a moment for this to sink in, but then the sweet gentleman shook his head and said, "Ohhh, noooo ... we'll just pretend that we broke it. Don't you worry about it one bit. No, no, no."
I was touched. I'd been all ready to teach my daughter a lesson in consequences and she'd suddenly been excused, had become the recipient of undeserved grace. She was redeemed, her debt paid. I wanted somehow to pay the man back for this sweep of forgiveness, so I immediately turned around to hunt for something we could buy. Directly behind me were the most adorable prairie bonnets, for only $5. I had each of the girls pick one out, and also grabbed a couple of souvenir documents, too (who doesn't need another copy of the Gettysburg address, after all?) and some postcards. Mr. Sweetest Clerk in the World couldn't comprehend that we would leave the shotglass behind, and he wouldn't hear of it, so he tucked it into our bag, chipped piece and all, and said, "Maybe you can glue it together and still enjoy it."
At first I thought, "Oh, he just doesn't get it. We don't want the shotglass. We never wanted the shotglass." But in the end, he was right. I will enjoy it -- not as the kind of souvenir it was meant to be, but as a souvenir of the kindness of a gentle man in a small store in Pennsylvania during the Summer Trip of '08.
Anne was immensely relieved at the outcome of the entire incident, of course, but we did have a little talk about shopping. I informed her that she'd just learned three valuable lessons:
1. Be extra careful around the breakable stuff, even when you already think you're being very careful.
2. If that man hadn't been so kind, she'd be out $5.
3. Most people are kind, despite what you read in the paper.
After pretzels and chocolate, we headed for Lancaster, PA and the Family Centered Learning Conference ....
Got bonnets? We do.
9 comments:
Something similar happened to us recently. It was lovely to realise that yes people really are basically kind.
I love the bonnets!
Oh Karen, you tell a great story.
I laughed out loud at the part where you wanted to buy something just to repay this gentleman...and I smiled and nodded...and all the while, my heart swelled (you can feel your heart swelling sometimes, you know--it's grace, it's God) as I relived this day through you.
For heaven's sake, Karen E, (and I mean that literally), you take as much time as you need to tell these stories.
What lovely bonnets! And a beautiful story. I'm so glad you are forging ahead and telling it all. If it were me, I'd have given up on it all
and never shared these wonderful moments. Please do keep sharing them.
Oh that was such a wonderful story. Grace and kindness finds us in the most unexpected places, doesn't it?
Also, love the bonnets!! They will go well with the reading of the Little House series that sounds like it is on the schedule this year as well.
Oh, this is beautiful.
One time, the toddler Girl innocently swiped a lollipop from a very old man selling maple syrup, and when we brought her - and her loot - back to the old guy to weepingly apologize, he wanted very much to give her the ill-gotten candy.
Another great lesson is that honesty is usually rewarded. It would be easy most times to sneak away. My daughter accidently broke a flower pot at the home improvment store. When we went to report and pay for it, the clerk just thanked us for our honesty and said not to worry. She said that is called "shrinkage" and the store plans on a certain amount. Again, honesty is the best policy.
I love it when grace abounds! Cute bonnets!!
Such a great story. Saying a Hail Mary for that nice man.
And I am drooling over your bonnets!
That third lesson is so very true. In my profession I tend to meet folks in a momment of crisis (for them), and yet when you treat them with kindness and respect you get...kindness and respect in turn.
Ed
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