Anyone familiar with the military, is familiar with the payscale. Most of us live from payday to payday, praying that nothing big happens. We've almost all had to visit a "payday" loan company, or make a visit to the ACS office for assistance in making that last minute payment.
Few of us with children will qualify for WIC, and its rare that we are allowed govt. aid such as food stamps. I'm not saying we in the military are poor, by by any means, but maybe a bit underpaid.
So, when the occasional sale such as the Commissary Tent Sale arises, you can imagine the chaos that ensues. I like the rest, await this day, like Christmas.
Imagine if you will....Twas, the night before Tent sale, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring not even a mouse. The coupons all clipped, laid with care by the door, the sales ads all folded with good deals galore.
The wives are all snuggled, deep in their beds. Visions of chaos, danced through their heads. Mamma in her longjohns, me in my cap. We dreamed of the sales on all sorts of crap.
While out at the commissary, there rose such a clatter. The MPs they sprung to see whats the matter.
Away to their cop cars, their tanks and their hummers. The threw on their lights, their side arms and gunners.
When what to their wondering eyes should appear, but 8 little women all them cashiers.
On Dana, on Carol, on Patty and Jasmin. On Cathy, on Ming Lau, and Donna, and Brenda.
Slash away, slash away, slash away all!
One can imagine, how crazy a sale of this magnitude can be.
You arise to stand in line by 6 am. We wait for sometimes hours, so we can get one of the 10 hand carts available for tentsale use. We enter single file into a big tent, almost a feeling of fear as you enter into the unknown. The whispers that go down the line. Did you see that sale on Tide? No but I got the Gatorade.
The tent sale can be a place of fantasy, and romance for some. A place to form life long friendships over "which is a better deal, Kool Aid or Crystal Light". As we stood in line for over 2 hours, my 4 yr old son, pronouces his love for the girl ahead of us. It seems as they've known each other for a lifetime. (especially since I think I was still pregnant with him when we entered the tent)Right there in front of the Hamburger Helper, they wed. With all sale goers as witness'.
Nothing says love, like 2.99 a case.
Of all the tent sales in all of the world, she had to walk into his.
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My horror as a wife goes to the infamous Military Grocery store who sell the wonderful cases for $2.99 simply because we are outstanding Family Members who deserve evrything from A to Z on the post.
ReplyDeleteThere is usually 1 or 2 nuttsy-coo-coo (or nuttsy-caa-caa) cashiers who cannot support the use of the ID card when we bring a civilian as a guest shopper with us, this includes our extended family members). These cashiers, with their rude attitude, surely spoil the tips for the Grocery Baggers. These cashiers are the ones who come to work impecably on time as scheduled, count the register money too quickly to have time to blink an eye, and always have a balanced register figure at the end of their shift, not a penny over or under. They treat civilians as if we make our money overnight and hang them over the stove to dry for fear that if we hang the money outside to dry, a big gust of wind may come through and blow the money away to kingdom come. I'd like to ask them where the hell they came from and HOW did they ever make it inside the Installation. The second question to ask these types of workers is: Who made your ID card, was it Mr. Bin-Laden?
We though, choose to continue this life because we support our Soldiers who defend our country's Freedom so we can live equally and comfortably. It is a complicated life, but we never pay a price for our Freedom.