I'll admit it.  If there is an OATS bus anywhere near a store, I tend to avoid shopping there - especially if that store is ALDI's grocery store.  (For those who don't know, Aldi's is a discount grocery store.)  My experience has been that the old folk tend to stick together, toddling down the aisles two by two, stopping to visit and talk over the price of things.  And of course, getting the food out of their carts and onto the conveyer belt is a whole 'nother story.  It is easy to help unload their carts, but even paying for their groceries is quite an ordeal.  So I avoid the whole scene.

Aldi's uses a quarter system to control cart returns.  You put a quarter in a slot to get your cart.  Then when you return your cart, the quarter pops back out of the slot.  Today was an Aldi's run day.  The OATS bus was just pulling up as I left the store.  Whew, I dodged that bullet!  As I returned my cart to the corral, a little lady was trying to figure out the whole quarter system.  The bus driver was trying to explain it to her, but he had his hands full helping everyone else.  I offered her my cart and the driver told her she had to give me a quarter.  The baffled look on that poor lady's face!  I told her it was ok, the cart was hers to use.  Right then and there I made a vow to no longer avoid the OATS bus.  Maybe, just maybe I can help make shopping just a little easier for this generation preceeding me.  Face it, I'm not that far behind them, and sure will appreciate a little caring and understanding when it is my turn to stand at the cart corral looking confused. 

And before my kids kindly point out that I am already often confounded and confused, I know it.  Just so you know, though, it is only going to get worse!

"Butt jiggle is just my little way of..Waving goodbye!" Maxine