SPEAK!

When you are in the aisles, and there is someone you don’t know already there, how do you handle it? What do you do?

 Lately it seems I’ve been roaming a lot. I’ve been hunting in other people’s backyards often. And rather than look at how I treat my fellow fanatics, I’ve been very keen on how they treat me. And the harsh reality is that outside my normal stomping grounds where I know people, I don’t get treated well. I certainly don’t get treated like someone who has a love of all things toy car related in common.

Take for example a recent trip through Dan4HW’s backyard. I’ve never met Dan in person, but from my interactions with him on the board, I’d say he’s a pretty cool guy. I’ve wanted to make arrangements to meet up with him as I breeze through his town, but his town is never my destination, merely my “pit stop” to grounds further west. It’s just never worked out. I’m always just passing through.

My brother in law graduated from Frostburg State two weekends ago. We went out naturally, and met my Sister In Law in Frederick so she could ride up with us. Whenever I am meeting up with someone, I usually meet them at a Wal Mart or Target. No reason, wink wink. So while waiting for her to show up (she could get lost in a phone booth), I wander into the store. Now I have heard from Dan several times about the competition in his place, and truth be told my finds in his town have always been marginal. But you never know.

As soon as I got near the rack I see an older guy looking. As I walk down the aisle he looks at me, looks me up and down, and then turns his back to me and moves between me and the rack.  I swear I heard a “Hrmph”.  

Has this ever happened to you? Have you ever done this?

I actually thought it was kind of funny. Just for kicks, I got up on my tippie toes and went “ooh!” and snagged a car (I don’t know what it was, I just grabbed it) off the back of the top most peg and scurried off.  

The guy followed me through the store to see what I got. How obsessed do you have to be?

He eventually left me alone, and I headed back to finally look at the pegs alone. I’ve found that what is popular in my area might be left behind elsewhere. One man’s pegwarmer is another man’s hole filler. And I found an I-Candy with co-molds, which I needed.

Just then I noticed a BOD and walked over to it. As I stood there, a young scruffy guy came up and said “you need zamacs”.  

I toyed with the idea of saying, “No I don’t take Xanax anymore”, but I figured that line might have zoomed right past him. “Never found any”, I replied. 

“I got about 50 of ‘em. My sister works at Toys R Us, I sell ‘em 15 each.”

Think about that for a second. With all the discussion about scalping and streamlining limited making them easier to corner, what kind of fool would walk up to a total stranger and try and sell them something for 15 times it’s worth? I just looked at the guy for a minute. Borrowing a line from Arnold Schwarzenegger, I said “Well, you must be very proud of yourself”. I dropped the I Candy in the bin and left. Sister in law had finally showed up. 

When we reached our destination of Cumberland I went out to that local Wally and once again, I was greeted by a person who acted as though I was going to steal his candy. Not one word to me. Peering suspiciously over my shoulder at what I was picking up, trying to hide what he had in his hands.

It’s just funny really. What was he going to do if I saw his stash? Cry? Panic? Did he have the secrets to some type of weapon on the back of his cards? He sure acted like he did. And what was he so interested in what I had for? Was he going to grab it from me? Tell his mommy? What? 

And before leaving on Sunday, we went to Ollie’s. As we were getting out of the car I noticed a guy looking at me and rushing into the store. I thought (in internet terms) “WTF?”. Until I got inside and saw the guy rifling through the toys. He must have seen my Hot Wheels sticker on my car and figured he only had a few second alone with his rack before big bad me came and ruined it all. OH NO!!

I saw a special on Discovery once about groundhogs. One will find food and try to hide it and them become so distrusting of all other groundhogs that they will scurry around moving their stash and eyeing up all the other groundhogs until what you have is a series of groundhogs hiding stuff from one another and eyeing each other up. 

And I bet all the groundhogs wonder why the zookeepers think they’re insane and don’t want to deal with them, too. 

It’s funny that we can act this way over toys. And the silly thing is, it doesn’t have to be like this. I remember a day when I went to a Target and saw a guy there. I was in a bad mood, so I wasn’t talking and the other guy didn’t seem real talkative either. We both went on about our business, and somehow managed to run into each other again at another Target about 5 miles away. Small talk and Chit Chat, and as we were both walking out he said “Hey, by the way, your third brake light is out”. I paused and then said “Oh, you saw my sticker”. That’s how he knew which car was mine. 

I mentioned how I like to advertise my presence, and said how I’d like to get a Joe’s Diecast Shack sticker to complete it. He smiled.

I guess at that point we knew who each other was. I was talking to Shackie JDRos. And I never would have really met him had he not been willing to offer up that my taillight was busted. I had broken my rule of trying to talk to everyone because I was in a bad mood and almost missed talking with a guy I had spoken to online many times. 

Funny how that works out. 

So now I make my best effort, and it’s great how it pays off. I was in a Wally the other day and was chatting it up with a guy I hadn’t seen before. We talked a little and he handed me off two Crooze bikes. “I already got two, but I don’t like seeing (scalper Mike) get ‘em all”. I found something I never thought I’d find and it was because I talked to him. If either he or I was defensive he’d have walked out with those bikes and I never would have seen them. Instead, I have them.  

And the point was once again driven home today when in Target I saw a regular who is pretty cool and another guy talking. The topic was the collector day at K mart and where the two big local scalpers are planning on being. I found out there is a K not far from here that no one will likely be at. The three of us will get there together.  

And again as we were walking out, we talked about recent finds. I mentioned that I hadn’t got the Green Passion yet. And this guy I had never seen before said, “Oh, I got a few of those. You want one?”  

He just handed it over. RAOK on the parking lot.

I’m going to bring him a WL Corvette I have. He mentioned he never found a WL.  

And it wouldn’t have happened if I was a groundhog.

--43Goalie

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