Whitie in the Suburbs

Most handy homeowners have a favorite little one-stop store that they visit on the weekends in the spring. In small towns it is a local hardware store. In larger cities in my area it is usually the one-stop Lowes or the Home Depot. In spring these places are crowded with experts and innocents shoulder to shoulder all in search of something to fix or remodel or enhance on their house or in their yard.

We live rather close to one of the most successful Home Depots in a very affluent home area. Just trying to get a parking place can cause a small altercation. That is why I should not have been surprised at what happened outside my local Home Depot last Saturday.

As usual, I was into elaborate talking mode accompanied by elaborate hand waving mode to explain the type of item we should be looking for as my husband and I descended the stairs from the parking lot to the main entrance. Suddenly, mid-way down the stairs, he placed his hand on the front of my shoulder to stop me from taking the next step. He was looking at the small crowd of people at the bottom of the stairs in front of the primary entrance to the store.

As I focused on the crowd I began to see that this was not a normal milling of people. There was one large man who looked about 40, at least 6'’4"”, his head towering above all the others and standing in an aggressive stance while two smaller men behind him were pulling on his faded red t-shirt and attempting to hold him back. The man was somewhat attractive and maybe Arabic or Asian Indian descent. He reminded me a little of Vincent D'Onofrio, the detective on Law and Order, Criminal Intent.

He was that good looking, but like D'’Onofrio there was something a little creepy about him. Anyway, on the other side of the small circle of the dozen on so people were two much smaller men their faces twisted and arguing back. They also looked middle-eastern or Asian, but were clearly older with gray hair...maybe in their late 50'’s and short in stature. In between this pushing and shoving and shouting were two Home Depot employees with the traditional red aprons trying to keep the peace. One was a heavy-set black man working very hard to calm down the Vincent-look-alike. The black man would no sooner get the '“V-O'” look alike back to the edge of the circle and seemingly calm and then the guy would rise up like a big bear and head for the two men again. This went on for at least five minutes. The big guy was relentless and I thought he might be drunk or on something, even though he seemed pretty coordinated.

Finally, when 'V-O' got on his high horse one final time, the black man lost his patience and gave up the polite and calming approach and started talking loud and using his chest to bump the man back. I got the feeling that he had dealt with this in another life, maybe the military. He seemed very controlled and confident and began ordering the guy to get off the property. This level of confrontation seemed to freeze the crowd momentarily.

I also had lost my patience and ignoring the mess, hurried down the stairs and just around the circle into the doorway hoping that hubby was behind me. As I looked through the automatic glass door, I was surprised to see a line of shocked people inside the door with their purchases and full shopping carts waiting to leave. What a mess!

Well, my husband and I hurried on into the store and headed back to the aisle to get going. We had a long day of errands ahead of us, and this idiot was not going to slow us down anymore. He was gone by the time we made it through the checkout a short time later. All the white suburbanites were pretty much in shock that such a thing could happen in their precious little neighborhood. I ws just very irritated and thankful that no blood had been spilled.