The cracked brass bells will ring

[austin_dern]

One of those odd things which comes up around me suspiciously often happened from stopping at Wawa, which it might be useful to explain is a chain of convenience stores often with gas stations attached and which generally have lower-than-average prices. I was pulling into the parking lot ahead of getting gas, since I also wanted to get a soda. There's nothing stopping me from going into the store for whatever I want to pick up while the gas is filling, of course, other than that I've taken to listening to audio books and I like having the extra time to get my ``reading'' done.

So I circled around a short while looking for a good parking space, by which I mean one I don't have to back out of, and accepted that the best spot was next to a car with a rear window decorated with messages written on in that chalk-soap thing normally used to obstruct the windows of newlywed's cars. It didn't seem likely to me that newlyweds would be stopping at Wawa, although the extra-sweet iced tea is really worth some attention even on the happiest day of one's life. New graduates seemed more probable.

And then I looked at what was written in the rear window. It read:
                                          BG #2
                                            RIP
                          May Angels Guide You In
with a few stars and crosses decorating the corners.

I'd never imagined that sort of things as being something to decorate the car for. I don't begrudge people their grief, or how they choose to express it, particularly when it is pretty low-key and it's not disrupting anyone else's activities. It's just that I hadn't imagined rear-window messages to be all that probable an expression. Given that this particular Wawa is near a theme park, I wonder if it wasn't high-school or college-grade young adults playing a curious prank on people who wander past expecting something like ``Summer Vacation Fun Trip 2008'' or the like, in which case I probably wasn't the right person to see it.

Trivia: The world's first sugar-beet factory was built in Silesia in 1801-02. Source: Food In History, Reay Tannahill.

Currently Reading: The Rules of Baseball, David Nemec.

Comments

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

There's nothing stopping me from going into the store for whatever I want to pick up while the gas is filling

This rather startled me because there are stickers on all the gas pumps in this state reminding you that by law someone has to be outside the vehicle and in sight of the pump while the tank is being filled.

ETA: Of course after a night's sleep I managed to remember that in your state you don't have to (or get to) pump your own, thus dismissing my mental picture of people wandering around while leaving gas pumps shockingly unattended.

[orv.livejournal.com]

I was at one station in Michigan where a guy wandered into the convenience store and left the pump running, causing the clerk to cut it off remotely and scold him over the intercom.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Good grief. You can't even leave the pump running while going in to stop at the convenience store or get cash from the ATM or go to the bathroom or something? Self-service looks all the worse all the time.

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

This is why the use of a passenger is recommended. You can procure one of these either by carpooling, bringing along of local friends into modest tasks along with a stop for dinner at Applebee's, or pregnancy (not necessarily your own).

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

When my brother went to University of Connecticut at Storrs, he was able to get away without pumping his own gas by offering anyone who wanted a free ride to the gas station and back, in exchange for them doing the pumping. He reliably got multiple volunteers. This does suggest that Storrs is a wee bit short of entertainment options for college-age students. (At least as of roughly a decade ago when he went. It may have improved since.)

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Don't have to, is correct. The joys of that are less obvious this time of year when my car hasn't got air conditioning, but it's very obvious in winter, or during rain.