Friday, October 24, 2008

Cantankerous!

Taco Bell is always full of characters (I've considered starting a blog devoted entirely to experiences had there) and today was no exception. He sat at a booth, alone, next to one of the windows along the drive thru. I glanced in his direction regularly because through the giant window sticker demanding (not rhetorically asking) "WHY PAY MORE!" I could keep an eye on my bike outside. He must have been at least 70, and he sat hunched over his Gorditas like a pianist playing Rachmaninov on his Steinway. He was a white man with a ruddy complexion, nearly completely bald, and flanked by two bags. To his right, on the bench seat, was a large black backpack that looked to be completely full. To his left, on the ground, was a stuffed bag from Big Lots. When he stood to refill his drink he walked slowly and laboriously, but with confidence and evidence of a strong will. I was able to observe that his black slacks and black polo shirt were separated by a brown braided leather belt, and pinned on his concave chest was a Big Lots employee name badge. He didn't bother sitting down when he returned to his table. Instead, he lifted his backpack, slid his arms through the straps, snatched up his tray full of trash, and headed toward the exit. The Big Lots bag sat forlornly on the smooth tile next to the empty booth.
"Excuse me," I said as I walked up behind him, "Excuse me." No answer. "Sir."
He turned slowly and looked up at me with gunmetal blue eyes. "Yeah?"
"Is that your bag?" I asked while pointing toward his newly available real estate.
"Hell yeah it's my bag," he fired back. "Anybody tries to steal it, I'll knock their face in."
"Nobody's trying to take it, I thought you were leaving."
"I ain't leaving, I'm just trying to take a piss!" And with that, he turned and kept walking. I sure hope nobody stole his bag; for their sake.

5 comments:

Justin Blomgren said...

haha, great post. A freshman at APU got threatened by a gun a week ago at the local taco Bell. Always full of interesting people.

David James said...
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David James said...

Justin:

I was that guy threatening the APU student with a Western style shootout.

He disrespected my CBU beach cruiser. So he had it coming fair and square.

Brian Baker said...
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Brian Baker said...

I had an odd and extremely frightening experience at a Taco Bell in SLO. A short middle-aged man who reeked of alcohol kept staring at me and my two friends in the restaurant. He eventually came over and sat at our table. My friend asked him, "are you alright," to which the crazy man replied, "probably not." The crazy man then went outside and circled the restaurant, staring at us the entire time through the windows. Glad I came out alive.