Weather forecasters are predicting 60 mm of rain tomorrow. At the supper table my wife mentioned, “I am really worried about (our son’s) footwear for tomorrow.”
I called Canadian Tire at the Eaton Centre and they set aside a pair of rubber boots, size 7, at the Sports desk. So my son and I drove over. When we got down into the sports department we spotted a young employee with a shaved head, wearing the company’s trademark red shirt, talking to a slightly older, and somewhat taller, young man. They stood beside a rack that sold many colours, styles and thicknesses of yoga mats. Seriously, since when did Canadian Tire get into yoga mats? But I digress.
“What is the difference between the $50 mat and the $20 mat?” asked the customer.
“I really do not know,” replied the sales guy. “I think they are all about the same.”
“Can you scan this one?” asked the customer. So the sales guy scanned it. Then, deciding he’d helped as much as he could with the other customer’s yoga-mat angst, he turned to us.
“A guy set aside a pair of rubber boots for me,” I said.
“It wasn’t me,” he said with a shrug. He called into his radio, “A customer is here, says someone set aside some rubber boots.”
“They’re behind the basket under the counter,” came a voice.
The young man in the red shirt handed us the boots. My son tried them on, and they fit perfectly.
“Another satisfied customer,” I said.
“Most of my customers are satisfied,” he said. “It’s just that I know absolutely nothing about yoga mats. I am usually over in hockey or soccer equipment. But two guys didn’t show up for work today.
“I am pulling a heck of a shift today,” he added. “I started at noon and I am working until 10:30 tonight. Then I open the store tomorrow morning at 8:30. And I live in Scarborough. I am going to get, like, three hours of sleep tonight.”
I asked him how he gets home.
“I usually take the subway to Sheppard,” he said. “Then I change for the Sheppard subway to Don Mills. Then I get on the 85 bus going east to Victoria Park. And then I change for the 24.”
Whew.
“I have a dead-end minimum-wage job in retail,” he said. “It’s a real testament to why you should stay in school.”
I asked him whether there is anything he is good at.
“I am good at math,” he said. “So I’d like to be an accountant. Or maybe someone who works with disadvantaged youth. Or maybe a lawyer. I’d like to help out people who are innocent.”
That sounds worthwhile.
On our way back up the escalator I spotted the budding yogi. He had a grey yoga mat under his arm.
“I just didn’t want a mat with flowers on it or a motivational saying,” he explained.