Every Monday for two hours I volunteer doing something with my free time that’s worthwhile, and it makes me feel good because I’m helping.

But, the rest of the week?

I needed more.

Tuesday’s are a work in progress but Wednesdays?  

Wednesdays were open.

I was looking for a Soup Kitchen and found an organization that was nearby and sounded interesting.

I was suppose to apply on line but I don’t have the patience to do online and WAIT.  

I wanted to do it the old-fashioned way…..apply in person, see someone, talk to someone.

I did the map-quest thing and got directions from my driveway to their address.

Sadly for me, I’ve spent most of my driving life…..LOST!

But today’s world has map-quest and a woman named Siri who will actually talk to me.  

However, I don’t trust Siri.

Usually when I listen to her, I become seriously lost and have to pull over and sob for a few lost moments.

My daughter Melissa at just 3 years old, was WAY better than Siri. 

She’d lean up over my shoulder while I was driving and tell me the names of the streets and where I should turn.  

Three years old!  

She obviously got her dose AND MINE of directional genes!  

And yep, she stood on the back seat and leaned on my shoulder to direct me BECAUSE that was life before car seats and seat belts or any thoughts of needing them.

My sweet husband now and then comments on how it must suck to never know where I am.

It does.

I have ZERO directional genes.

ZIP, ZERO, NADA, NONE!!!!!

But, map-quest said I was close.  

I was sure I could find this place.

I was confident.

I was NOT asking my human-map-of-California husband to tell me how to get there.  

NOPE.

So, one morning after Dewey (my husband’s library name) left for the library, I set out to find this place.

I followed the instructions.

I DID!

Over and over and over for about fifteen minutes but, I never found the address I was looking for, not even close!

I gave in and asked Siri, then like always, pulled over and fought the pissed-off tears.  

Defeated again, I went home.

That evening, the human-map-of-California guy took me on a little ride and…..there it was.

I’d gone straight instead of following the little jog in the road…..neither map-quest nor Siri had warned me and that’s where I went astray.

When we pulled into the parking lot, the OPEN sign in the window was still lit so, in I went.

I spoke with the authority-looking woman behind the desk and yes, they do have a Soup Kitchen but, they didn’t need any help in either the kitchen or serving.

How about delivering meals? she asked.

Let me tell you here…..my sweet man thinks my volunteering is a great idea BUT I had to raise my right hand and swear NO DRIVING jobs.

He reminded me that if I’m not driving in a straight line…..I get lost!

He said he could visualize himself getting an S.O.S. call from me while he’s at work and then time after time he’d have to rescue the LOST Meals On Wheels delivery lady!

OK so no driving job for me.

However, there was a Thrift Shop in desperate need of volunteers.

Hmm?

I gave it 5 seconds of thought.

OK, what the heck?

I filled out a quick info sheet, met the guy I’d be seeing there on Wednesday as my boss, and GOT DIRECTIONS to where this Thrift Shop was.

And HOORAY, it’s right smack down my main street, over the freeway and on the left one block away from the Frozen Yogurt Shop. 

I can do this!!

The next Wednesday morning, 10 A.M., 5 minutes from home, I was reporting for duty.

Young man boss was already there pulling racks of clothing from inside to outside in front of the store.  

Another boss with a smiley face and a thank you for coming!

I’ve never really been inside a Thrift Shop, always meant to just never did.  I guess I just never thought of it.

I took a few steps inside and then stopped to TRY to take it all in. 

It was a free-standing Hoarder Thrift Shop.

I know about hoarders, I really do.

I had to deal  with one once when I was the Director of Nursing in a Residential Facility and it was a NIGHTMARE! 

It was crammed with merchandise.

It needed to be moved to a building about as big as a grocery store but instead everything was jammed into a small shop about the size of a corner 7-Eleven.

My very first thought was…..get in the car and go home!

I wasn’t sure my neurotically organized brain could handle this.

But WAIT!

Right there in front of me were 3 matching hand-made ceramic soup bowls like the three I used to have before I broke them.

They were a dollar each!

They were exactly like the one lone survivor I have left in my cupboard that I bought from an Art Festival for $20 each.  

Same signature on the bottom.

Perfect for a small dish of ice cream…..with syrup & nuts.

SOLD!!!!!

OK, I decided to stay.

Young boss-man came inside. 

We spoke for a few minutes and he decided to teach me the register.

I thought we’d kinda ease into the money-takin’ part but nope, I was given a two-minute training session and that was that.

He then just let me loose.  

Told me to walk around and get a feel for the place, where things were. 

WHERE THINGS WERE ?

They were EVERYWHERE! 

It was a nightmare.  

Along the walls on both sides and the back were very narrow shelves. 

Mostly glassware, dishes, cups and bowls were jammed and balancing on each other.

Down the very middle, (walking sideways) were old beat-up chairs that could barely be seen underneath the junk piled on top of them and a huge dining room table with crap piled so high on it that I wondered what the heck would happen if anyone ever wanted to buy that table.

Then everywhere else imaginable were clothing racks.

No order, no ROOM for order!

I’m an organizational freak but this sight was overwhelming to my eyes.

Should I stay?

Should I run?

Enter Hungry Helen.

 

She’s a worker, a paid worker…..unlike me, an unpaid worker.

A nice woman, sixty years old (I heard her tell someone).

I also heard that life’s been a struggle for her.  

She raised two sons by herself, both now young adults.

Different from each other as day and night.

One is an amazing young man, lives with and takes care of his girlfriend with M.S.

The other?

Well, he’s behaving right now because he just got out of prison and he’s on parole.

She recently moved to the Sacramento Valley area from down south.

She has a dog, no money, lives in a very small apartment in a not-so-good area and…..she’s hungry.

Young boss man appeared and announced he was leaving for a while…..something about a birthday party.

It was just Hungry Helen and me…..so I thought.

I was standing at the register when two young women came up to me from where I don’t know, and said there was someone outside with a car full of donations and what should they do?

Hungry Helen said we were taking NO donations today, bosses orders.

They both gave me a pleading look. 

Me!

“It’s all brand new stuff,” they said.

“Still in boxes.”

They were looking to me for an OK.  

I’d been there all of 15 minutes and I’m suppose to make a decision?

OK, I figured.  

What the heck?

I often wonder why clerks in stores aren’t able to make easy decisions.

It’s brand new unwanted stuff…..this was a Thrift Shop so what’s the problem?

Easy decision.

“Bring it in,” I told them.

Not so fast.

Hungry Helen didn’t like that.  

Boss man had said NO donations.  

She was very uncomfortable with my easy decision.

She decided call him.

He said yes.

End of problem.

During that little debate, two other young women had come in and I hadn’t seen where they went.  

I found the very small, very pregnant one up on a chair in a back room reaching and putting boxed games away.  

I went back to tell her she shouldn’t be up on the chair but how nice of her to be organizing the games. 

I thought she was a customer.  

That’s when she told me she was on a Community Service Worker Program and it was either there or jail.

Oh!

For the rest of the afternoon, she stayed in that little room with kids games, toys and clothes and organized.

And ll the while she talked.  

She had ear-plugs attached to her pocketed cell phone.

At one point when I walked by I heard, “every time I leave the house all you guys do is fight. Why can’t you get along, you’re making me crazy.” 

Ahhh memories flashed before my eyes of a time gone by.

The other young woman who’d come in with little pregnant person ended up standing next to me while I was finishing a sale. 

I reached for a bag.

“DON’T use those bags,” she commanded, “I just brought them in.”

And she pushed a grocery bag full of plastic bags away from my reach.

Well OK Bag Nazi and I found a bag elsewhere.

Another Community Service person I presumed.

Next Hungry Helen commented that boss man hadn’t gotten any fives for the register and we’d need them.  

I volunteered to take a twenty and go 2 buildings down to the party store-gas station and get four fives.

Helen thought that was a good idea.

As I was walking out the door, Helen yelled, “bring me some food…..just jokin’”

By now I understood that Helen was Hungry!

The guy behind the counter at the party store could only give me two fives and a ten.

I went next door to see if they could give me two fives.

It was a Taco Stand.

I felt bad just asking for change so I ordered a couple tacos for Helen.  What the heck?

She was hungry.

I had a few dollars of my own in my pocket.

I figured two tacos, three bucks? What the heck.

WRONG! 

Two tacos, $7!!!

When I walked in, Helen was rocking on one of the donated chairs.  

“I brought you something to eat.”

She spotted the Taco bagged and lit up.

“Did you bring enough for everybody?”

Everybody meaning the other four Community Service Workers who were there working off their time instead of going to jail?

THAT everybody?

Did I, the volunteer old-bag worker who hasn’t even been introduced to the other four…..DID I BRING ENOUGH TACOS FOR ALL?

“No Helen, I didn’t,” and in the privacy of my brain, I added…..

 

Let’s see, that would entail about 8 more tacos meaning about 28 more dollars plus the 7 I already spent, for four people I haven’t even been introduced to, I don’t even know their names.  

No Helen, I didn’t!

TO BE CONTINUED HOPEFULLY NEXT FRIDAY.

Oh, one more thing from Helen as she was getting ready to chomp on the tacos.

“Would you bring me my water over here?  It’s by the register and, did you bring any Chips and Salsa?”

“NO HELEN, I DIDN’T!”