Silliness

A couple of days ago I was in our local “Publix” supermarket to pick up three or four necessities.

The cashier (assistant in the U.K.) was a young woman in her late teens or early twenties.  So was the “bagger”.

This cashier, seemingly oblivious to me presence, chatted with the bagger as she scanned my purchases.  Clearly they were both part-time employees at "Publix", and  part-time students at a local Collge.

I heard the cashier say something about her professor (teacher or instructor in the U.K.).  He had given her some instructions.  Her tone of voice expressed scepticism about what he had said.

The bagger responded with “he said the same thing to me”.  Then she added “whatever”.  The cashier echoed this and she also said “whatever”.

This was my time to enter the conversation. “That’s amazing”, I ventured, using a strong but gentle voice.

Both young women looked directly at me.  They heard me say:

“Whatever”.  “That’s exactly what my parents said when I was born”.

After a few seconds the two young women began to laugh.   So did I.

They had caught on to my zany sense of humour, so the three of us were able to smile, giggle and laugh together.

“Whatever!”