Thrift Stores
Me: “WordPress and I have continuing disagreements about
the sizes and positions of graphics.
I am comfortable with imperfection.”
Cleaning Out The Store
May 25, 2023
I was leaving a thrift store as an old man rode up on his bicycle.
Old Man: “Did you clean out the store?”
Me: “I bought these 5 items.”
Old Man: “You did clean out the store!”
Me: “I apologize!”
I laughed and went on my way.
DISC Behavior Style Clues
Outgoing
Curiosity
Humor
Influence
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Liking Only Some Attention
May 25, 2023
I noticed that a mother had pink and purple tints in her one-shaved-side hairstyle. Her young daughter’s shirt had pink and purple on the front.
Me: “This is the best mother / daughter coordination I’d ever seen!”
Pink & Purple Hair Mother To Daughter: “Say thank you.”
I happened to stand behind them in the checkout line. I pointed out the color coordination to the cashier. I could tell that the Pink & Purple Hair Mother was not happy about what I said.
Despite her attention-attracting hairstyle, Pink & Purple Hair Mother did not like the attention I was drawing to her.
She did believe in following rules of politeness, though.
DISC Behavior Style Blend Clues
Eye catching hairstyle
Influence
Reserved
Obeying social manners
Conscientiousness
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Visiting The Cat
June 8, 2023
I visited a thrift store, but found nothing.
A man and woman were walking into the store as I was leaving.
Me: “I didn’t find anything. Good luck!”
Man (laughing): “I’m just here to visit the cat!”
DISC Behavior Style Clue
Humor
Influence
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30+ Year Old Stereotype
July 13, 2023
I noticed a woman who looked familiar, so I talked to her. She was the identical twin of a woman who had worked at the local university. We talked about the university.
During our conversation, Twin suddenly said the name of a woman who had worked at the university more than 30 years ago in a unique position.
Twin: “She was a prostitute and she got her job by sleeping with the chancellor.”
I was speechless from shock.
DISC Behavior Style Clue
Accusation of rule breaking
Conscientiousness
Another student and I had done an independent study project in grad school with Stereotyped Woman.
Grad School Friend had been employed at the university while taking classes.
After getting home, I contacted Grad School Friend,
wanting to know how Stereotyped Woman had been hired
so I knew what to say if her name ever came up again.
Twin had told me about a friend who talked about Stereotyped Woman everywhere she went.
Grad School Friend explained that people in unique positions are recruited by search committees.
It just so happened that Grad School Friend was on the search committee for that unique position.
Plus, I found information online saying that Chancellor had recruited Stereotyped Woman for the position.
He gave Stereotyped Woman’s name to the committee so they could offer her the position.
At the time, Chancellor and Stereotyped Woman lived in different parts of the country.
Now I know what to say in the event I ever hear similar ugly gossip about Stereotyped Woman.
I’ve also decided what to do if anyone else ever speaks an ugly gossip stereotype to me.
“I’ll check up on that and see what I discover for myself.”
Use this story to protect yourself.
You can never tell who someone knows just by looking at them.
Twin used ugly gossip about someone I had worked with
because she assumed I did not know the victim of her ugly gossip trashing.
Trash anyone and you risk trashing them to someone who knows them.
Is the trashing worth the risk to you?
Plus, people who use ugly gossip about anyone
are capable of using ugly gossip about everyone,
including you.
Participating in someone’s ugly gossip about other people
gives them permission to trash you with ugly gossip.
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Playing During Checkout
October 27, 2023
The man in front of me paid with cash. The cashier checked to make sure the bill wasn’t counterfeit.
Me: “Have you ever gotten a counterfeit bill?”
Cashier: “No.”
Male Customer: “She doesn’t realize how we were working together and that you were distracting her while I committed a crime.
We now know that this hadn’t happened to her before, so it would be easy to put one over on her now.”
Male Customer then walked away.
Me: “It was fun playing with you!”
DISC Behavior Style Clue
Humor
Influence
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From Spit To Cheers
November 16, 2023
I was in a checkout line behind an elderly gentleman holding a Mickey Mouse jigsaw puzzle.
Me: “I like the bright colors.”
Elderly Gentleman: “So do I. I buy jigsaw puzzles for my granddaughter with autism.
Sometimes she looks at the puzzle and shakes her head. I return that one and buy a different one.
I also buy puzzles for veterans, who often don’t like my choices, either.’
Me: “Are you a veteran?”
Elderly Gentleman: “I was drafted into the army during the Viet Nam war.
I took an Honor Flight last month to Washington D.C. It was a long day.
When we landed back home, 1000 people were waiting at the airport to cheer for us.
It was much better than when Americans spit on us in 1967.”
Me: “I saw the local news report about your return and was happy to see the cheers.”
DISC Behavior Style Clue
Repeated attempts to please granddaughter and other veterans
Steadiness
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Colorful Word
April 18, 2024
I found capri pants that were a cross between blue and purple. I was looking for purple capri pants, but liked this color and knew it would look good with my green and purple blouse.
When I checked out I asked the cashier what color she thought the pants were.
Cashier: “Periwinkle.”
Me: “I wouldn’t have thought of that word. Are you an artist?”
Cashier: “I try to be.”
Cashier is more of an artist than I am.
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Following My Feeling & Learning Something New
May 17, 2024
I felt I should visit a particular thrift store. I found 2 pieces of clothing I’d been looking for.
Standing in line, the woman in front of me commented on my bruised thumb. I had closed a screen door on it and the bottom half was purple.
Talkative Customer told me that she had badly bruised a fingernail when a log she threw into a wood stove bounced back at her, hitting her middle finger against the stove rim. Her finger throbbed badly and sticking it into ice water only made the pain worse. She sterilized a needle and poked 3 holes into her fingernail.
Talkative Customer: “The blood spurted out.”
The pain stopped. She learned that technique from her mother during her rural childhood.
I had never heard of poking holes into a fingernail. I told Talkative Customer that icing my thumb hadn’t helped either. The pain finally stopped a while after I put arthritis cream on the nail and around the nail.
Talkative Customer than showed me a book she found in the store about home remedies to try before going to the doctor. I took a photograph of the cover with my cell phone.
Before You Call the Doctor: Safe, Effective Self-Care for Over 300 Common Medical Problems
Bobbie Hasselbring
Michael Castleman
Anne Simons M.D.
I told her about apple cider vinegar for burns. I discovered the healing power of apple cider vinegar on a semester abroad in Europe. We stayed in a dorm room in Hungary. Each room had a sink with a glass shelf and mirror above it. Because Hungary is a poorer country, the edge of the glass shelf was rough and sharp, not sealed in any way.
One night, I bent forward to rinse my face off after washing it. I hit the sharp edge of the glass and gashed my forehead, a small gash, luckily. I was using aloe vera gel and apple cider vinegar on my face, and applied them despite a minor sting. I continued to use the gel and vinegar every day. The gash healed without a scar. Curious, I tried applying apple cider vinegar to bug bites, rashes, and burns. It helped every time.
Then one day I made a stupid decision. I put honey in a plastic measuring cup in the microwave to warm. When I took the measuring cup out, the bottom fell off and boiling honey poured over my left hand. Remembering the apple cider vinegar, I poured vinegar into a rubber glove, put my excruciatingly painful left hand into the glove. I rubber banded it onto my wrist. As soon as my hand went into the vinegar, the pain stopped.
Fearing for my fingernails after 2 hours, I took my hand out of the glove. No pain. Half inch high blisters, but no pain. I soaked my hand in apple cider vinegar for half an hour a day until the blisters subsided. Still no pain. I kept the blisters covered with band aids to protect them. As my skin healed, it stayed red for weeks. The redness faded. No one could look at my left hand today and think I had that kind of burn.
Talkative Customer was happy to hear a new self-care solution.
We exchanged names and shook hands.
Talkative Customer: “Aren’t you glad you met me?”
Me: “I am.”
On the way out of the store, Talkative Customer said something about television preachers talking about prosperity, but that prosperity wasn’t always about money. I agreed with her. I said I have neighbor prosperity. My neighbors have my back in all kinds of ways. As I write this, I have a leak in the roof over my kitchen. Three of my neighbors are helping me get my roof back to leak proof. A fourth neighbor cleaned ceiling pieces off of my kitchen floor.
I live alone in a big house because a relationship ended and children moved on. Years ago, one of my friends asked if I was going to move to a smaller house. I told her I would never move away from my neighbors. The neighbors who have my back range in age from early 40s to late 70s. My back is covered for years to come.
Talkative Customer agreed with my idea of prosperity.
Chit chatting leads to more than career conversations. It also leads to social safety nets.
DISC Behavior Style Clue
Talkative
Influence
Spranger First Guiding Value Clue
Interest in home remedy information
Knowledge
Possible Second Guiding Value
Assuming other people feel glad to meet her
Position
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God Arranging Payback
August 19, 2024
I wanted to try on a sweater I found. The changing room was gone.
At the register I asked about it. They had to remove the changing room because of too much theft.
I said people see famous people getting away with human justice, not realizing that God creates justice, which can also be known as “payback.”
I told the cashier about 4 god-on-earth pharaohs who used their power to erase Tutankhamun (King Tut) from ancient Egyptian historical records. I watched a documentary about King Tut’s grave. The pharaoh following King Tut buried Tut in a tomb the size of an official’s tomb, not the size of a pharaoh’s tomb.
An “act of God” flash flood later buried Tut’s tomb. The flood left 1 to 2 meters of rock-filled sediment on top of the tomb. The sun baked that sediment layer into concrete, hiding the tomb until Howard Carter discovered it in 1922.
King Tut is now the most famous pharaoh in history, despite the make-him-disappear efforts of 4 god-on-earth pharaohs:
Ay
Horembeb
Seti I
Ramesses II
I wrote a blog post about payback from God, which includes the story of the 4 pharaohs.
No one gets away with anything. You can read how I got payback for writing a nasty letter.
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© Paula M. Kramer, 2023 to the present
All rights reserved.
Updated October 16, 2025.