For those of you playing at home, I'm pretty sure I just said "Good housewife-potatoes in the movie theater, my birth-sausage..." in German. Yeah, don't read too much into that one. On with the blog...
As most of my blogs these days begin, I was working the 'Greens this morning in the photo department, when this old dude with a cane saunters near my counter. At first, I didn't pay him much mind, seeing as how there was no possible way this guy didn't have like twenty prescriptions to pick up, so I thought he could just settle all his business at the pharmacy. But then, he stopped right in front of the digital photo kiosk.
I have a confession to make. I always have a little crisis of conscience every time someone over 60 tries to use our kiosk. The older crowd (and there is no shortage of them at Walgreens) tends to get a little confused and disoriented whenever they encounter any technology in our store more complicated than, oh, say, a tin-can walkie-talkie. And since I am closest to the electronics, it's always me that has to explain what an MP3 player is, or why we don't carry typewriter parts anymore. And, depending on the person and the purchase, this can take anywhere from half a minute to half an HOUR. So, imagine my trepidation when an old folk takes his "Magic Picture Chip" and puts it in the most complicated piece of machinery he could EVER get himself tangled up in in-store. Basically, I'm left with the choice of quietly sneaking away or playing dead.
But this guy looked determined to use the kiosk, so I left him to his own devices for a little while, hanging around in case he had any questions. It took him five minutes poking around before he looked up at me and said "Excuse...Me...Sir?"
I went over to the kiosk and asked "How can I help you?" like a good little peon. I can't remember the exact phrasing of the sentence he said next, but I seem to recall it sounding something like this: "Was ist diesen hier meinen Pictures gemacht uber Heute Abent oder aber Nachtisch essen?"
It wasn't that bad, but it was pretty friggin German-ish. Now I really wished that I'd played dead because this is a 1-2 punch in the gut for me. An Old Dude AND a German? This guy's gonna take forever on hier, oops, here.
So, I did the only thing I could. I took ten minutes out of my day just to show this guy how to work the kiosk. I showed him everything. How to edit your pictures, remove red eye, order prints..."Just touch the picture right here...then touch the plus sign here" just like a patient mommy. I was getting pretty sick of this guy, so I just gave him the brushoff..."If you have any questions, I'll be here" and went back to my regularly scheduled photo business.
Then, a tiny miracle happened.
This old german dude really got into it, and I mean REALLY got into it. He was pretty much almost to the point of giggling every time he pushed a button on the screen. I went over to the kiosk again, and he smiled at me, then showed me what he had learned. "Touch it, und touch it" he'd say every time he selected a print to be made. "Touch it, und touch it." And I couldn't help but laugh a little too. After all, it was the first time I was filled with anything but HORROR when an old dude showed me how he "touches it."
I guess the moral of the story is, you KANN teach an old hund neue tricks.
And I wish an old German dude into all of YOUR lives...
1 comment:
A classic Libby, indeed. Well-blogged!
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