Bookstore weirdness

[trystinn]

We have a rather large Bible Baptist church here, a compound really, with about a dozen buildings. You can pretty much identify them on Sundays by sight: the little girls wear prairie dresses (right out of "Home on the Prairie"), the women wear too much makeup and cheap jewelry and the men have 'evangelical hair'. So our proto-typical BB family came in yesterday. First off, Flash goes waddling over to say hello and the mom starts shrieking "my daughter is allergic to dogs" then gives me the evil eye like its my fault the kid has allergies. I put Flash behind the counter with me and life goes on pretty well until the younger of the two daughters comes up the desk.

Her: Do you have *mumble*?
Me: I'm sorry, I can't quite hear you, could you speak up?" (mind you, there's other folks in the store and music is playing).
Her: Do you *mumble, mumble* book?
Me: I'm sorry, I still can't hear you.
Her: Do you have *mumble, mumble* sea?
Me: *smile of death* Do you know the author?
Her: *mumble* Stephen Law *mumble* (I swear she was speaking lower each time)
Me: (trying an old trick now) Do you know the spelling of his name?
Her: S-T-E-P-H-E-N
Me: O__o Yes, dear, that part I know. Last name?
Her: Lawhead
Me: (the end is in sight!) Which book now?
Her: *mumble, mumble* sea
Me: Dragon King at Sea?
Her: Yes, that one.
Me: I can order it for you. (I fill out the order slip and hand it to her to write in her name and phone number)
Her: That's not the right book! I asked for Brown-ears at Sea! (almost at normal speaking voice, oddly)
Me: I'm sorry I misunderstood you (fixed the order slip), thank you.

Is it too much to hope these BB parents will ever teach their daughters to speak up? She spoke the entire time in whisper and the counter is several feet deep, customers behind her were rolling their eyes and glaring at the back of her head. Poor thing.

Comments

[vicki-sine.livejournal.com]

Ok...just pointing out that lots of children go through the mumbling stage.

Not sure why, but my son and daughter both did it, and my grandson recently finally stopped doing it.

Especially in a situation where the child has to ask a stranger something, most kids I think go through it.

[keastree.livejournal.com]

BBs out, BREAKING THE SABBATH??!

Heh. Just gotta laugh.

[tryst-inn.livejournal.com]

I must have missed that stage, either that or having a pushy Jewish mother didn't allow for mumbling.

She had excellent eye contact, I was actually quite impressed.

[seastormwitch.livejournal.com]

Conversly, my teenaged daughter speaks so damn fast I need a slow play button sometimes.

Kids *sigh*

[tryst-inn.livejournal.com]

LOL I can relate.

When I was 10 we moved from NY to AZ - a state of sloooooooow talkers. The elementary school put me in speech classes to get me to talk slower and to dull my Brooklyn accent.

[man-of-snows.livejournal.com]

You have an accent?! ;)

[tryst-inn.livejournal.com]

So I'm told. I can't tell anymore.

[midnightfae.livejournal.com]

Damn Arizonans don't know how to keep up.

[alfrecht.livejournal.com]

Knowing BBs, though, I'm sure she possibly had to sneak that one by her parents...Stephen Lawhead, as a quasi-fantasy/Arthurian/medieval writer might not be considered "good God-fearin' books" by the parents...

[tryst-inn.livejournal.com]

Probably did, come to think about it. Its odd when a parent doesn't at least make some kind of remark when their child orders something.