Mr. John

It's no secret I love Trader Joe's. It opened here in Nashville last November. Shopping at Trader Joe's puts me in a good mood. Pure and simple. My most favorite thing is shopping at Trader Joe's all by myself. Not only is it great to be alone so I can think clearly but it's also extra nice to be able to look at all the products since they get new stuff all the time. But tonight was a real treat - a surprising treat. I took Meg and Olivia because I was already on that side of town. As we entered the store, Meg dropped her new toy that she just received an hour earlier at a birthday party. It rolled under a big display piece and was unreachable. We asked a nice "Crew Member" to help us with a broomstick or something. He willingly obliged (as you would expect from a Trader Joe's Crew Member). He got down on his hands and knees and fished out that toy. This toy, by the way, was some wacky whistle which I will mention more about later. He got up from the floor and handed Meg the whistle. She said thank you and he said glad to help. Then she said to me, "Mom, that man was really handsome." I was cracking up.

So we're shopping through the store and she's blowing that silly whistle ... it's more like a whirring, whizzing whistle than a traditional whistle. And people (really just the other Crew Members in the store) are making great comments. One pair of Crew Members were debating whether or not it was a kazoo or a whistle. The man said to the woman, "No. It's a party whistle not a kazoo. With a kazoo you use your voice to hum."

We're close to being done with our shopping and Meg somehow tears the top of her yogurt container. She keeps saying that we needed to go see "that man" to get some tape to tape it. So when we approach the check out area, he's helping another customer but she goes right on up to talk to him, inspecting his shelves for tape. I tell her she needs to leave him alone while he's helping another customer. A different cashier comes us and says she can help us at another station. I tell her my daughter has a thing for "Mr. John" and so we'd wait for him. The cashier says she'll help him bag our groceries then. The carnival begins.

I tell Meg that his name is "Mr. John." Meg says, "Oh." And immediately begins singing John Jacob Jingle Heimer Schmidt and "Mr. John" says seriously back to her, "His name is my name, too." She is stunned! It was so funny and now we have the previous customer, the other cashier and who knows who else enjoying the fun. Olivia is doing the scanning for him and he gets the eggs out of our cart. He says, "Have you ever juggled eggs?" I said no, but I really have been wanting to learn to juggle. (This is for real.) So he juggles the eggs for a bit and then tries to show us something fancy and he drops one. It was hilarious. Then he takes off running to get us a new container. He tosses a cantaloupe into the air. We talk about watermelon tossing and other fun things. We all comment on how fun it is to shop at Trader Joe's.

Thanks, Mr. John, for helping us out tonight. Maybe I should bring my kids along to Trader Joe's more often.