Thursday afternoon I made a reluctant trip to the grocery store. Reluctant because of the estimated 6.7% inflation of grocery store prices in the past few months.

While shopping at my local market on Thursday, I noticed a very colorful individual. He was dressed in a sea mist green jogging suit with a cell phone in one hand and barely holding on to the grocery cart with the other. Around his neck were several gold chains, his hair was stark white and his facial features brought to mind thoughts of Bea Arthur in the Golden Girls. On his feet were the most dirty and worn out pair of house slippers that I had ever seen. He slouched his large frame over the grocery cart for support, shuffling his feet as he navigated his way through the store. I dub him slipper man for the rest of my adventure.

I am a professional people watcher. I live for it. I love gathering information to imagine what people are all about. How they work and what makes them tick. This man was a great subject to indulge my people watching skills with. My planned short trip to the store turned into an hour and half production. I did not intentionally follow him. It seemed as if every turn I made in the grocery store brought me right back to slipper man. I was very intrigued.

He had several very short yet loud cell phone conversations with his friends. He had such a clear and smooth voice. Along the way he stopped and started conversations with anyone who would listen. He provoked them to light hearted debate. This man is the type of person that I would take great joy in sitting and talking to for hours over a cup of coffee. Yet I kept my distance, after all I was just an observer on this day.

While loading up his grocery cart he talked to people about this week’s gas prices, the days of rationing, the fuel crisis of the 70’s, how strong our country was in the 80’s and any other topic that he could get a rise out of someone with. His trip to the grocery store was clearly his social hour. People knew him by name and I wish that I could remember it, but I was so involved in this man’s presence that it didn’t stick with me. Slipper man’s grocery choices were frugal. Several jars of jam, peanut butter, coffee, loaves of bread, fresh fruit, pasta and sauce. I could see by how labored his choices were that he must live on a fixed income.

Just when I though that the show was over we headed towards the checkout area. We both chose the self checkout lanes. I always chose them when possible to avoid the “bag lady” that works in the afternoon. This woman will put your groceries in 10 bags even if you only bought 7 things. My thought was that slipper man was avoiding her too. Slipper man is ahead of me in the checkout talking on his cell phone the entire time. By this time I wasn’t paying much attention to him as I was trying to get everything together to speed up my checkout.

I finally get the chance to start scanning my purchases only to be confused by the fact that I can not scan anything. The “bag lady” is working the lane next to mine and notices my confusion. She also notices that there is a $200 purchase on the scanner that has not been paid for. They asked me for a description of the person using the lane before me. All I have to say is sea mist green jogging suit and old slippers and a police officer and two cashiers are running out into the parking lot. Slipper man has attempted to make a run for it with $200 of free groceries in his possession.

I am shocked by the fact that there was a police officer in the grocery store to begin with and even more shocked when they bring slipper man back into the store with his grocery cart. It was a very awkward situation, I stuck around long enough to hear that he only had $58 on him and had no other means to pay for the rest of his groceries. The cashiers knew him by name, again I wish that I could remember it. He carefully chose the food he was able to pay for. The coffee and peanut butter were going back on to the shelf as was his fresh fruit. My heart dropped. It has been a lot of years since I had to worry that much about the cost of my food. I left the store with slipper man softly crying while the police officer put his arm around him and tried to calm him down.

So slipper man if you are reading this, you are welcome over at our house anytime. I hope that you still have your dignity after your ordeal. Just so you know, I make a great cup of coffee and a mean peanut butter and jam sandwich. I’d love to sit and debate the economy with you and listen to your advice. I’m sorry that desperation compromised your values and I hope that life gets easier for you very soon.