A Fence, a Hardware Store, and a Lexus SC

We’re painting the white picket fence that borders part of the garden and we ran out of paint thinner. So I stopped at the local hardware store in White Bear – a suburb that used to be a small town (and before that a resort hot spot for Chicago mobsters like Ma Barker – but I digress…).

White Bear still has a small town feel and people often say “hi” and strike up conversations (I love it) unlike the inner metro where everyone seems to pretend that no one else is around.

Anyway, I found the paint thinner with the help of two guys about my age who escorted me together to the shelf with the selections and discussed which would be the better choice for my use. More help than I needed, but they seemed to enjoy what they were doing.

On the way out, another fellow about my age, dressed all in black – shirt, pants, jacket – like a lounge singer, stopped me as I was about to pass him in the aisle. “Hey,” he said, “is that your Lexus out front?”

“Ah, no, that would be my ’98 Rav4 with 165,000 miles in the lot,” I said.

“Well, you just look like the type that would be drivin’ that sweeeet lookin’ Lexus,” said the man in black.

“Is that right?” I said quite puzzled. I was wearing old blue jeans and a sweater so it wasn’t my clothes. My son says that it might have been the shaved head, although I hadn’t shaved for a couple days so was looking rather rough.

I just chalked it up to how we don’t see the world the way it is but the way we are and paid for my paint thinner.

As I left the store, I looked around and found the Lexus. Click here to link to the car that looks like I drive it – from the perspective of a middle-aged lounge singer.