ALPHA

While shopping at Aldi's, I saw a beautifully dressed woman wearing a plaid jacket, blouse with a jabot, skirt, hose, and flat shoes with a wedge heel.  Undoubtedly, from this description,  you have gleaned that this was an OLDER woman--well, at least, older than myself--because most women do not "dress up" to go to the store.  Later, in relating this encounter to my brother, he said, "That sounds like something you would wear!"  Oftentimes, people ask me why I am always "dressed up";  I always respond that these are the only clothes I have.  (I do not own jeans, shorts, or sweat pants.) My husband says that I do have a "uniform":  blouse, jacket, and blazer, combined with with either a skirt or slacks.

In the store today were also grown-up women wearing fleece pajamas, one woman wearing a strapless sundress, with others wearing shorts and jackets at the same time.  At 50 degrees, I need a jacket!

The woman and I were at the banana bin and I told her that I wanted both green and yellow bananas because my husband, brother, and I eat a banana daily and we have totally different desires in bananas.  I like bananas hard, barely ripe, Gerald likes them ripe, and Les likes them very ripe, flecked with brown spots;  thus I need to buy various degrees of banana ripeness.

 

The woman said, "Honey, you look familiar."  I introduced myself and she responded, "My name is Alpha Leda."  I asked, "Is that spelled A-L-P-H-A-L-E-D-A?"  She replied, "Yes, but it's two separate names."  I asked, "Were you the first born in your family?" She answered, "Yes, how did you know?"  I said, "Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet."  When she told me that there were eight in her family, I asked, "Did they name the last one OMEGA?"  I could tell that she did not "get" my feeble attempt at humor.  I said, "Leda--just like Leda and the swan--that's a lovely name."  She said, "You're pretty smart;  most people don't know that."


We continued our conversation at the bin of watermelons, discussing fine points of watermelon selection.   I said, "Wow! These are cheap!"   As she began struggling to pick up a watermelon from the bin, I said, "Let me get that for you."  She said she wanted four.  As I plopped four melons in her cart,  I asked if she had someone at home to help her.  She said that the family would be coming in the afternoon.  I followed her to her car and loaded the melons and the remainder of her groceries in her car.

She said, "That's your good deed for today."  I said, "It's my second;  I was doing the shopping for a friend of mine."
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