We stopped by the store for a short list of items to replenish our stock of milk and to buy some dinner items. After a quick scan of the checkout-lines, we settled on one that had just one customer in front of us. We were quick to regret our choice initially – the cashier and her customer, both ladies in their late 60ies or early 70ies, were talking intensively and it became very apparent that they knew each other and were catching up on some news in their circle of friends. That intense conversation did not help with expediting the scanning of the shopped items – of which there were many. And while both took note of our presence they always returned to their chatter about seriously interesting topics. After some inclination to switch to another line – it would have felt awkward to put the items from the conveyor belt back into the cart – I settled into my faith of being dependent on two chatty old ladies and chose instead to observe and listen to their conversation to the extent that was possible. The two ladies could not have been more different – the cashier was a slender woman in simple clothes, no make-up with a simple bob cut applied to her brown hair, she wore glasses. In hindsight I should have looked at her hands – in my experience hands are always telling about the age and work of a person. The other lady was somewhat heavier but not overweight. She wore quite a bit of jewelry, jeans with matched if not fashionable clothing, make-up and had made her hair into a top bun. Scanning the items the lady was buying I noticed multiple bottles of champagne and other specialty items. What also struck me is that the cashier lady did not have a person to bag the items. The customer lady had brought her bags but had put them up onto the register counter and the cashier was scanning and bagging all items over the ongoing conversation. What surprised me was that based on the tone of the conversation the customer lady would not offer to help with bagging given that there was no dedicated person to do so for her. It happens so that I am currently reading and thinking about retirement – in the narrow sense since it impact myself and my family and since we are working through the practical elements of getting settled into the new situation; but also in the broader sense reading about the retirement system in the US and I am getting sensitized to the fact that many people are not as fortunate to be secure at that stage in their lives. Up to this point I did not tune into this topic beyond general recognition that the socio-economic situation of people varies widely. Both ladies clearly were older than us and by my judgement eligible for retirement. And while the snapshot of this observation leaves many open questions – here we were with an older lady working the register likely beyond her nominal working age. In the book “Work-retire-repeat” by Teresa Ghilarducci that very scenario is described extensively – people not ready to retire for lack of financial security and often in need to take on less desirable jobs to cover. On the other side there was a person clearly better off – and while that in-itself is not a shame either, I took notice somehow of a non-symmetry in the situation and further took offence in her not helping her friend or acquaintance with the heavy lifting. Of course, I don’t know if any of this represents the facts – but it connected to my recent reading and perhaps emphasized a point described there.
The ladies parted ways expressing their expectations to see each other sometime next week…although I could not figure out for what.