Paper or Plastic With That Senior Discount?
“Do you use the senior discount?” asks the checkout woman at the department store. “No,” I say, weakly smiling back at the cashier who appears to be older than my mother. Do I look old enough to avail myself of the senior discount!? I shriek inwardly. I wonder if the young blonde mother in line behind me has heard the woman’s query. I glance back at her in hopes of an empathic glance, but she busily reaches into the stroller to adjust her baby’s blanket. Although I am many years away from the privilege, I now feel old enough for the senior discount. Humiliation ages a person quickly. I hobble out of the store vowing to never again leave the house without makeup. I recall an old piece of advice: “Edward always said, ‘you should never ask anyone a direct question.’ ” Edward has been deceased for many years, so I never had the chance to hear this directly from the source. His widow, Bunny, occasionally imparts this wisdom to others. She says one should never, for example, ask another pers...