Leo Goes To Wal-Mart, Again???

By Leocthasme

And Again ???

“Ok Leo, What’s going on?” somebody asked.

“Jeez, this is the third time in 2 years, watcha’ gonna’ do get Scott’s Job or somethin’?” another one of ‘my pals’.

Well, I guess I can’t blame everybody for askin’, but hold it gang, let me explain.

“Boy, that’s gonna’ take some explaining”, another heckler from the rear.

OK, OK, let me get this all straightened out gang. You all ought to know I never set foot in that joint, never, ever. So let’s catch up with the facts. Last year or so on Halloween I was out in Pecos , at that place for a candy day sale. You all should remember that story. Collected a few bucks for the poor workers who toil there for peanuts, and have no health insurance. That story was in the November 2005 issue of Pencilstubs. Look it over

http: //www.pen cilstubs.com/magazine/MagPage.asp?NID=2122

And then, yes I did actually enter those forbidden turnstiles, but please hear the story. Happened just on my birthday actually.

Seems I was visiting my daughter, in May, we share our birth date on the 18^th of that month. And, of course, for the celebration she needed to stock up on food a bit. Well, let’s face it she lives in a little burg outside KC, MO. And, with gas prices and all, she nixed going there. And, in her little burg in Western Missouri there is one ‘Save a Lot ’ store with very little selection for feasts. So, she calls me aside, and whispers in my ear.

“Hey Dad, like it or not, I am going to have to go to WM over in the next town just across the river and get some groceries.”

Well after the family got me down off the roof and made a huge pot of hot coffee (they said it would settle my nerves) I finally spoke up.

“OK, if that is where you are going to shop, I will go with you, BUT, I AIN”T SPENDIN’ A DIME IN THAT HELL HOLE OF CREATION. But, I will MAKE A STATEMENT on my visit there”.

“Oh, oh, what are you going to do Dad”?

“Well, I am going to just dig out my Union Shirt and Hat and wear it, and walk all through that damn place with you, but again, I AIN’T SPENDIN’ ONE RED CENT.

Jeez, dad, we’ll all be arrested.”

“That’s how STATEMENTS are made kid. Let’s go.”

So that was my second visit to WM. And guess what, I did not get arrested, nor did I say one word to any employee. Nor did the wary manager, who seemed to be following me all over the store, say a word, but he did keep his eye on me all the while we were in there. So that was another reason not to talk to any employee, even if my darling daughter could not find what she was looking for. I surely would not get some poor employee in trouble by speaking to them in that get up I wore. The manager would have probably thought I was handing out sign up cards or even informing the employee of some secret organizing meeting. NO I did not speak to anybody, but just walked through the store.

NOW THAT IS MAKING A STATEMENT, without uttering a word. And just between me and all my friends here reading this, I was just proud of myself, because not uttering a word is something god-awful for me to comprehend mentally. My dear daughter wanted to take a picture of me, actually in the store, but I had to warn her not to do that either as that might be considered some sort of publicity stunt. But she did get my picture once outside the door and here it is.

And so much for that second visit, let’s talk about now, June 30, 2007, that was the third time in the past couple of years I visited WM. And, this time was just like the first time. We never set foot on the property. But, fun is fun, we had workers check us, managers speak to us, and even a patrol car showed up with a very nice lady officer.

Here is the story and some PICs. We arrived about 9:30 am on that nice sunny Saturday morning. And here I am ready to hand out some cards explaining that Wal-Mart

• "ships good American jobs overseas,
• opposes strengthening our nation's port security,
• threatens our health care system,
• and helps make China's economy stronger while weakening America,
• so it is time to "Put America First"
for folks to mail in to Wal-Mart Watch.

Still cool at that time of the morning in West Texas so we got an early start. Bob Dean stopped by to encourage us in our efforts. He is the County Democratic Chair over in Pecos .

And Mary was along too, but then she always gets me to the places I got to go.

And soon we were gettin’ ‘em comin’ and goin’ right as they came in or left the driveway. And we stayed right on the sidewalk at the beginning of the driveway so as not to be on WM’s property.

But soon we had a visitor. A very nice young lad, who worked at the store, came to tell us that the manager wanted us to leave the premises.

Can you imagine that, a manager sends a poor innocent worker to lay down the law to us. Typical I suppose of WM. I am sure the managers don’t know any more about the law than that poor young man knew, but to send an innocent employee out to take care of a job the manager should do is something else. Did he have it in for the kid, and maybe looking for an excuse to fire him? I do not know the answer to that question but I treated that employee in a very nice manner and told him my name and had him repeat it so he would take it back to his manager.

My words to him were, “You tell your manager that my name is Leo Curry Helmer. Have you got that and can you repeat that?”

“Yes, sure can.”

“Well good, now you can tell your manager my name and that if he has some message for me that he should come out and talk to me in person.”

And evidently he did just that. In a very short time the manager was out and telling me I had to leave. Well now, ol’ Leo C. can chew up managers like a plug a ol’ Horseshoe Tobacco, and spit ‘em out just as fast. Sure had a lot of that experience in my years. So here comes the manager hell bent on telling me what I should do.

And in the next picture I am looking him square in the eye, and telling him a few facts of life and otherwise. Well, I wasn’t too ‘stern’ with him, just told him where his property was and where I was in relation to his space. So for the time being we had an agreement.

Well, things went along pretty smooth after that so Mary took some time to run after some cool drinks and cookies. And I continued to pass out literature. But, then it was not too long after noon or maybe about 1 o-clock that we had another visitor, a very nice young lady officer, who may or may not have been called by the manager to boost his hurt pride.

Well, evidently she knew about property lines and such, but I suppose she wanted to get along with both sides, and keep down any disturbances. Se she just actually told me not to get near the street or not to stop cars trying to pull in to the drive so as not to cause an accident. All sort of safety stuff more or less and she was very nice about it. As a matter of course she asked me for some ID and I had my VA card with a picture on it. She then asked about my service and I told her I was a WWII vet. That impressed her a bit and then she said,

“Well we don’t want to lose you now, so stay clear of the street, be careful about stopping cars too close to the end of the drive and at best stay on the sidewalk, and don’t get on their property line.”

Well, all that was sensible enough, and I thanked her for her concern.

She left happy, and I had ‘accepted’ her advice.

We stayed about an hour more after that so as not to make the manager think he had gotten rid of us by calling the cops. And, we did not want the lady cop to think she had chased us off But actually we left because it was ‘High Noon’ in West Texas and that situation ain’t to be taken lightly. In the afternoon in June the temp gets up to 100 or more an us ol’ folks ain’t into sittin’ in the sun.

But we got our job done and we thought we did it well.

For details about Wal-Mart and its goings on, go to www.walmartwatch.com