It was mid September too hot for jackets and too cold for t-shirts. My dad and I were going to the local super-mart to pick up fishing supplies for the weekend camping trip. He was talking about something I half listened to so I could give him a half intelligent answer to any questions he might ask. I mostly stared out the window the whole ride. I really hated the place we were heading for. It was like a circus that never left town and switched performers every couple hours.

Upon our arrival to the Big Top I saw the first group of performers (low lives) standing at the corner of the building smoking and drinking from brown bags. What was so fascinating about being drunk at 11:00 in the morning I guess I'll never know. As we walked past the lot of them toothless smiles were flashed our way. I gave them a hateful look and I'm sure that my dad did the same. He has less tolerance for people than even I do.

As the automated doors opened I gazed upon two pairs of children no older than six climbing on one of the small cheap rides that are all over these kinds of places. We walked through the lobby and turned left down towards the outdoors section. If this place is a circus then we were in the rings now. A lady of about forty walked past and I almost choked on the perfume she had bathed in. The selection of the new fishing gear went by smoothly and we headed towards the front to pay and get out of there. A fat man with a pink and black button up shirt and what can only be described as a fedora hat was walking and laughing with two other feminine looking men. At this I had to laugh the outfit was just too weird. I laughed loud enough so they could hear me and continued walking.

My dad detoured to buy chicken from the deli area. In line ahead of us was a short lady around fifty, clothed in a black shirt and pants with bleached out frizzy hair. She kept pointing at the meat she wanted but the deli worker couldn't understand what was going on. "Hard salami". The lady repeated. But those were too many words for the dimwitted worker to comprehend. Another more able worker came and my dad got whatever it was that he wanted. We walked to the cashiers desk to pay and leave. Of course they had an old lady with a trainee badge on working this one and every other one was too filled son we reluctantly walked up and put down our items. The lady was as my dog Rex would say a "loony bird". She would have been better off sowing somewhere instead of elongating our day. After about ten tries to scan the same item another worker came and showed her how to work the scanner. Finally we were off to our car. The drunks were still there but I paid no attention to them. We were driving home and my dad was talking to me about something I was half listening to......

This is a revised edition of an old story with a new title. Please review me and enjoy