Who Will Speak For The Glittens?
Sunday, November 8, 2009 I have taken a job as a part-time salesperson in a mall for Christmas money, which means that one of my jobs has me out on the retail floor for the first time since 2004. Enough time has passed that I had nearly forgotten the strange intimacy that occurs between salesperson and customer.
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Yesterday, I met a man who had just had his colon removed due to his fight with colitis. He walked with the careful tension of a person whose body could not yet be trusted. He allowed me to bend down to the floor and help him slip his shoes on and off. His socks were clean and soft, and I wondered who had helped him with such great care that morning.
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A woman was hoping that she would be able to buy her husband another pair of his favourite slippers before Christmas, but he was suffering from The Gout and couldn't fit a shoe on his left foot. He was at the doctor's about The Gout right at that moment. She hoped that the doctor could do something about The Gout, but The Gout kept returning. Good men like him shouldn't have The Gout, she said, especially when they have such a mean neighbour who is in good health. I'm thinking that she would like to give her neighbour a good case of The Gout for Christmas.
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"What's with these mittens?" another woman asked, wriggling her hand into a mitten with separate finger compartments inside.
"It's sort of a hybrid between a mitten and a glove," I said.
"Well, I don't like it. Things should be what they are."
"Think of them as glittens," I said.
"No," she said. "Things should be one thing or the other. They should be what they are." She appeared to be offended by them and frowned while she put them down gingerly.
Poor glittens, I thought, as I hung them back on the rack. Who will speak for them?
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Customers drift in for minutes, sometimes for only seconds, and while they are explaining what they are looking for, they are also explaining themselves. They tell story after story about their families, their desires, the things they believe in, and they follow me home to people my dreams, their tales knocking around together in my brain like a makeshift village of strangers looking for love.
Reader Comments (22)
sometimes i feel like a glitten, and like the world is full of those crabby ladies.
You have such eloquence about every day things. Just lovely!
Headless Mom, thank you. You should meet some of these people. I keep wanting to take their pictures.
I have glittens! I resented them at first but they are warm as hell no matter how long I'm out in the snow. Best gloves/mittens evah!
I loved this post, and I love glittens.
When I read this title, I, too, wanted to know who would speak for the poor kittens that had the glitter mishaps. Great post!
What a beautifully written post!
It's the same with the phones, the stories that interweave and lace themselves in to my life, into my day. Deaths, breakups, births, slow decay-I hear it all.
It's both incredible and sad, infuriating and inspiring. And the one thing I did not expect going back into the service industry. THe things other people can teach us.
I'm sure working at a mall during the holidays has it's drawbacks, but this post is a great example of how incredibly interesting people are! It would also provide such great fodder for a blog. Thanks for your observations. Very inspiring!
I would love a pair of glittens. I love the bulky look of a mitten, but I hate it when my fingers touch inside!
way to find the silver lining in retail!
huh. I have never seen glittens before. Serving in a restaurant makes me meet the public in strange ways as well - for little snippets of time. Strange creatures.
I worked for a big box bookstore some years ago as my first retail experience. The most fascinating part of my job was hearing people’s stories or stories about the people they were buying books for...I seemed to be the resident expert on the self help titles so I received my share of ’interesting’ types.
I love the glittens. But I can see how people don't like change...things should be as they are.
Great post!
I've always been curious what it would be like to work in retail...I've been a counterperson and waitress type person and a receptionist and dishwasher and housecleaner and various other things but never retail.
You. You have spoken for the glittens. And it was good.
ErinH
I've always loved working retail at Christmas for exactly that reason. Also, it helped that I was always in music stores, so I got to help hapless 40 year olds find CDs for their slutty 13 year nieces.
I'm a social worker but worked retail at the same time for a few years to make ends meet. It was hard sometimes to tell one job from another some days. I worked in a chain drugstore and had people come in and take off their shoes and ask if I thought their foot looked infected and what medicine should they try? I spent a lot of time sending people to the doctors.....
Glittens make it far easier to shoot things.
I'm filled with unease that no one will love the glittens. What will become of the world?
My MIL has an outsized outrage against things that are Not The Way They Are Supposed To Be (which includes many recent societal advances), so I don't have much sympathy for that lady. Rather more for the glittens who were just trying to be useful, not offensive. Maybe "to have glittens" could be a new expression meaning to come up with a score of cool ideas that most people are not sure they understand.
Aren't glittens just the right thing to wear when one eats witha spork? I think glittens fit just right in the world.