The kindness of strangers

Today we spent in Milwaukee visiting Bob Mitchell. Last time we were there, Tom volunteered to build Bob a headboard for his bed so that Bob would have something to lean up against. Tom built the pieces for it at the house and we brought them down with us today.

First we went to eat at an Indian restaurant (yay!) and then went to the festival down by Lake Michigan. Tom had arranged for Bob's brother Jim to come help put the headboard together when we got back. Near Bob's house, I noticed a plastic pink flamingo for sale. While Tom was trying to track down Jim to work on the bed, I walked a couple of blocks to the place I had seen and bought the pink flamingo.

Buying it was a trip in itself. First, the young woman who waited on me seemed amazed that I would buy such a thing. When I told her we were actually looking for two dozen and asked if she had more, the boss looked at me as if I had lost it. "We had two, but someone bought the other one." Then she asked, "If we had two dozen in the basement, wouldn't that make you wonder about us?" We all laughed uncertainly.

Then the woman waiting on me took my twenty (the thing cost five bucks) and asked if I had change since they were running low. She didn't want smaller bills, just the silver for the tax. So I gave her two quarters and told her to keep the change, but she gave me some coins back and closed the register.

"Don't I get more than this?" I asked.

She got very apologetic and flustered. She didn't know how to open the register if she wasn't ringing up a sale.

"I'm sorry," she explained. "I am just helping out."

"Do you really think so?" I asked.

Fortunately I was smiling, so she smiled back. The boss opened the register and I got my fifteen bucks.

It should have ended there, but I was also supposed to pick up three Cokes at the local coffee shop. So here I am, walking down Brady Street with a pink flamingo under my arm, no shopping bag, and it gets a little attention. Outside the coffee shop a man and woman were sitting at a table watching me approach. He said, "I'm glad to see you taking your flamingo for a walk. Most people don't think to do it."

Inside, the girl at the counter smiled and said, "I like your flamingo."

"Well, who wouldn't?" I asked. She gave me the Cokes and a bag and I headed back to Bob's, attracting looks and snickers along the way.

Thje moral of the story?

If you want to strike up a friendly conversation with strangers, walk down the street with a pink flamingo under your arm. It helps to look nonchalant, like you do this every day.