I'm Not One to Judge, But...

Sit down on a comfy couch. Surround yourself with pillows. Have some smelling salts nearby. I have something to tell you. We don't need anybody fainting and cracking their head open.

Val is not perfect.

Being imperfect, she tries not to judge others. People have different backgrounds. They're raised differently. They have different means of supporting themselves. What a boring world it would be if we were all the same. However...

There are some standards of human decency that I think must be observed. One of them being the safety of one's children.

Wednesday, I turned T-Hoe onto the parking lot of the Backroads Casey's. Val is not a speed demon. The tailgaters who follow her at the posted speed limit can VALidate that fact. I'm always cautious when maneuvering T-Hoe through traffic, parked cars, and pedestrians. He's a large beast, with considerable inertia. I make sure T-Hoe is under control, and that I'm able to stop in an instant.

As I steered T-Hoe left, around the gas pumps, preparing to park in front of the store, something caught my eye.  A flash of orange. Like the red hair of my nephew. It was just at the corner of T-Hoe's left front hood area. Then it disappeared. I slammed on the brakes. T-Hoe sits up high. I can't see the ground directly in front of him.

OH MY GOSH! IT WAS A TODDLER!

Yes, a curly-haired red-headed toddler was wandering around by the car at the gas pump. I say car, but I mean dune buggy. Not a standard Gator-type vehicle, but a teardrop-shaped vehicle made from bright yellow pipe. With two seats, no doors or sides, and a kind of roll-cage made from those yellow pipes. Fine for riding around in a field, or up at the state park with other off-road vehicles. Not so much for in-town road-driving.

Anyhoo...I'd jammed on the brakes. That's one thing that still works on T-Hoe. The kid wandered back behind the dune buggy. I know my mouth had dropped open. I kept both hands on the wheel, or I might have wiped my brow with relief. I eased T-Hoe around that corner, passed in front of a U.S. Postal Service Jeep that had backed into a space, and parked beside it. As I was gathering my stuff, I saw the mailman looking at me, nodding. He'd seen it, too.

Of course the adult man and the toddler came into the store, and waited in line behind me. So I knew not to talk about the incident to the clerk. However, a second clerk, one who told me about finding pennies all over the basement of a house she bought, did not know of the incident. She stepped up to open the second register. In doing so, she looked out the front window, and said,

"Is that a BABY in that dune buggy?"

The other clerk agreed that it was. They chatted for a minute about how little he was. I was getting really mad, thinking this jerk had left his baby UNATTENDED in a dune buggy while he came in to pay. I imagined a car seat strapped into the framing. Yet he was right there beside me now, so I said nothing.

Dune Buggy Driver overheard their talk, and said, "Yeah, that's my son! He loves it."

Clerk II dummied up then. Before adding, "Oh. Does he raise his hands and squeal?"

Dune Buggy Driver said that he did. While he was paying for his gas, and the toddler was wrestling with a yellow 'Slippery When Wet' sign in front of the door, Clerk II made eyes at me. I mouthed,

"I almost ran over that toddler!"

Nobody was going to say anything about this issue, or about driving a baby around in that dune buggy. The clerks wanted to keep their jobs, I imagine, and not be complained about for criticizing a customer. You know VAL isn't going to stick her neck out. Sad but true. I'll never be that person on the viral video questioning somebody about their child-rearing methods.

Dune Buggy Driver and Toddler went out the door ahead of me. The kid took off running.

"Don't you go running across the parking lot, boy!" Yelled Dune Buggy Driver, making no attempt to grab the kid or quicken his pace.

I glanced at the dune buggy. There was a woman sitting in the passenger seat, holding a baby of about 8-10 months. Not a walker yet. No car seat. I don't even know if she had on a seatbelt. Not that it would keep the baby from flying out of her arms. Although it might have kept her from crushing it in a sudden stop.

The dune buggy left the lot ahead of T-Hoe. It turned up a residential street, and I lost sight of it.

There oughta be a law. Oh, wait. There is. For regular automobiles.