Since I was having such a horrible day, I turned to my usual solace. Food. I decided to use my weekly flex points on Wendy's takeout. As I pulled up to the cashier window and handed over the money, I was greeted by the cashier's question, "Are you a Scientologist?" Confused, I stared back at her blankly wondering if I had pulled up to the wrong drive thru. Nope, this wasn't Cult Recruiters R' Us. After some more minutes of awkward silence, she explained why she asked. She asked because I was wearing a red bendel. I told her Jews wear the red string. She kept asking me over and over if I had exact change. I told her over and over no. I got my food and drove away still pissed and confused.
When I got home I realized that I only had change for a $10 but I handed her a $20. So, I stood there wondering if I should go back and ask for correct change. Of course I didn't have a receipt. Another layer of hesitation was the fact that if I made a stink, I had already labeled myself as a Jew so I didn't want to feed into stereotypes or represent negatively. But I'm my mother's daughter so I drove back to the cashier window and asked for correct change. The cashier had to go get her manager. As I waited, a big truck pulled up behind me and the driver hollered at me to move forward. I yelled back that I was waiting for the cashier. He yelled back saying that I could park and walk in so I yelled back "So could you." Then he called me a whore. No, he called me "HOR -AH".
Long story short, I did wind up parking and going inside. The manager claimed the till evened out and they couldn't give me change so I told him about the Scientologist comment. He had a word with the cashier. I left. I figured out why she connected the red bendel to Scientology. She probably reads People magazine and a lot of stars are into Kabbalah then she confused that with another celebrity religion. The worst part of the story is that I realized much later last night that I did give her a $10. I had mixed up my trips to the ATM.
3 comments:
Idiocy happens to me all the time. Often I am the cause :-)
As a 31-year-old Jew, raised in the conservative movement and even having a stint as a Camp Yavneh CIT under my belt, I never heard the term, bendel, before.
Maybe in a few weeks, you can return to the same drivethru window and if it's the same cashier, you can ask her a similar inane question!
Here via the Hub, and I'm amused that the trucker called you a *dance*. Between that and Scientology, sounds like a pretty crazy day to me!
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