I must confess I am not a big fan of Walmart. It could be that the one closest to my home is an old Walmart with narrow aisles and I am slightly claustrophobic. Or maybe it is the fact that they discriminate against their women employees. Whatever the reason, I rarely shop there. However, on a recent family reunion in Florida, we had to go to Walmart. We had to get some bark for my dad’s yard. My two sisters and I were taking turns steering the shopping cart and making sure we didn’t lose our dad down one of the food aisles.
At the entrance to the garden center, a burst of Florida sunshine lit up the store. The raw sunlight highlighted all of our facial imperfections. It was the perfect light for spotting the dreaded chin hair. I revealed to my sisters that I kept a set of tweezers in my purse in case of an emergency plucking in my car. Seconds later, with tweezers in one hand and a compact mirror in the other, we took turns plucking our offensive hairs. We were so intent on our ritual, we didn’t stop to think about what we were doing and where we were doing it. But that didn’t seem to matter. No one noticed us, our plucking scene was a non-event at Walmart.
Every once in a while, I think about that visit and start to laugh. Then I start to worry. What if someone did see us. What if I get an email someday with a YouTube link entitled “stupid people in Walmart.” When I click on that link, there we will be, my sisters and I, plucking our chins like some hicks from Loserville!
