I was Attacked in the Supermarket by a Motorized Shopping Cart - Fact is Stranger Than Fiction!

Life is funny sometimes. You never know what each and every day will bring. I've been meaning to share this odd story with you for some time, but it's so bizarre and so outrageously funny, it took me a while to collect my thoughts, for what may be obvious reasons.

Several weeks ago, I was at my local grocery store here in southern New Jersey, the Acme Supermarket. Unlike most times, when I'm organized, have my list and coupons readily available, this time I was popping in and out for just a few items. I had loaded up my little mini cart - you know, the one that's about 1/4 the size of a regular cart and can hold oh, maybe six items at most - and headed for the Express checkout line.

I was lucky. The one person ahead of me was bagging his three or four items, and I unloaded mine. Contents: Four bottles of diet soda, two boxes of reduced fat Weheat Thins, and a jar of low fat peanut butter. (My dinner for the day!) I knew the young guy who was that day's cashier, and, like most of us, I was bagging my own items at the end of the checkout stand itself. I was almost through when all of a sudden, I saw a blur coming at me very quickly from the left.

A little old lady - not all that little, actually, but certainly old - had lost control of her handicapped, motorized shopping cart and hit me with it.

Not one ever known to be particularly shy, I immediately yelled "Ow!" This, as it turned out, was not quite such a good idea, although it made perfect sense at the time and still does.

Little Old Lady panicked when she hit me, and even more so when I yelled out "Ow!" Much to our mutual surprise, she kept hitting the 'Forward' button on the cart, hitting me countless times until she literally had me pinned against the checkout counter. There I was, Middle Aged Mom, pasted like a magnet on the back of the checkout turnstile while Little Old Lady continued to throw her hands up in the air, unfortunately also simultaneously hitting that darned 'Forward' button again and again.

In a matter of minutes that seemed like an hour, Little Old Man, who was apparently legally attached to Little Old Lady, came to her - note, I say here, her - rescue. He physically picked up the cart and pointed her in a direction different than mine. Without saying one damned word to me - "I'm sorry", "Oh, I really do apologize!" - the Old Ones trotted off in the direction of fruits and vegetables.

TI stood there, dazed, for a minute or two until I collected my thoughts. (What I would have liked to have collected were their combined small Old People necks.) The cashier asked if I was all right, and I said that I thought so. The irony here? I myself am disabled, legally, from a boating accident that took place in Fort Lauderdale eight years ago, Yup, I'm a card-carrying member of Those With Physical Disabilities, with the parking tag to prove it. That could just as easily been me driving that little motorized cart. Actually, Little Old Lady had really slammed her cart into me pretty hard, and my knees were bruised for over a week after this took place. (Knee level was where she kept slamming the front of the cart into my somewhat terrified self.)

What did I take away from this incident? Several things, actually, including a residual bitterness towards Old People behind the wheel of anything in general now. I was angered that the Old Couple didn't even stop to say that they were sorry for what she did to me. I was angry that the Little Old Man acted as if I wasn't even there. I was angry that the store manager didn't come to see if I was okay. I was, most of all, angry - and still am - that I didn't take up for myself. I could have been really hurt, especially considering my own physical limitations. What would have happened, God forbid, if that had been a small child standing at the end of that counter?

Yes, I know that I live in New Jersey, and frankly, most people in this state aren't particularly friendly, pleasant or outgoing. It's something that still surprises me after fifteen long years of living here, and one of the reasons we have our home for sale. Yes, I know that we live in a litigious society, which is probably why Little Old Couple flew like the bats out of hell that they were away from me. I'm sure that the store manager was horrified as well that I would sue the store. But no one, except for the cashier, even bothered to ask if I was all right, or needed any help. No one.

Happy Thanksgiving, Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas to you all. I'm thankful that I wasn't severely injured in this freak accident. I also like to think that I wasn't the 'freak' in the accident as well. I'm also thankful that soon, so very soon, I will be able to live in a part of the country where people don't flee from people that they've deliberately injured. This world is hard enough without having that fact rammed into you over and over and over again...