A couple weeks before Christmas, 2002, I went to Meijer in Oxford to buy a scooter for granddaughter Savannah. At age 7 it’s time for her to experience more severe scraped knees, elbows, etc.
I found a $39.90 boxed scooter on a high shelf, added it to my shopping cart collection of goodies and went through the checkout, credit card in hand.
Spring forward to Christmas morning. Five grandchildren and seven adults are making a mess of our family room with way too many gifts, mountains of crinkled wrapping paper and discarded boxes.
As things settled down I wondered to Savannah’s mother what happened to the scooter I’d bought. “Dad, there’s no scooter!” Susan said.
Thus began a search, a search that would go on for several days, repeating trips to my mini-van, the basement, rooms I hadn’t entered in months, the garage, three out-buildings and the covered swimming pool.
What the heck did I do with that scooter?
I finally forgot about it.
Spring forward to 11:13 p.m. (Note: that since times are now shown digitally no one ever says ‘about eleven fifteen.’) Thursday, February 27, 2003. I’m laying in bed, enjoying the relief I’d just experienced and awaiting sleep to return.
From nowhere came the thought (most of my thoughts stem from nowhere) I wonder if Savannah’s scooter was put in my cart at Meijer after it went past the scanner?
My memory, being what it is, I got up, went down stairs and wrote ‘scooter’ on a sticky note and stuck it to my desk. Naturally, I laid awake another hour thinking about it.
The next morning I went to the return desk of Meijer and was greeted by refreshing Michelle. I told her my tale, and she said, “We keep track of things like that,” and picked up a metal box cooks often use for holding 3 x 5 recipe cards.
As she pulled out a glob of receipts, maybe a thousand, Michelle admonished, “You should have come in sooner, like right after Christmas. I’m not sure we keep receipts this long.”
Yeah, yeah, shoulda, coulda — the story of my life.
After about 30-40 flits, Michelle looked up and said, “You’re so lucky! Here it is!”
At her suggestion I went home to see if I could find my original receipt, which, of course, I couldn’t, then back to Meijer’s and the cash rebate.
I gave the money to Susan and suggested she buy the scooter and not involve me.
Susan said, “Oh, I told Savannah you bought her a scooter last Christmas.” Maybe that’s why Savannah has been hesitating hugging her grandpa the last couple months.
* * *
n You can bet really fast drivers don’t worry about cholesterol.
n When you’re driving and looking for an address, why do you turn the volume down?
n The quickest way to double your money is to fold it over and put it back in your pocket.