Crazy? Or just an ol' bigot?

Yesterday on my way home from work I had to stop by the local Walmart to pick up a few items for the house. One of the unique aspects of Walmart is its representation of the entire community in which it resides - it's not uncommon for a 2008 Mercedes Benz to be parked next to a rusty 1989 Chevy minivan, both owners in the store purchasing the same item. It makes for some fun people-watching.

I usually run in and run out, and yesterday was no exception. I'm standing at the register with my son when an older couple, probably in their late 50's, briskly carts through the same lane to go to the register opposite mine. They were not well dressed, and as much as I hate to make presumptions I would probably guess they lived in a trailer or a small Section 8 apartment.

The man stops and pulls a 2-pack of cigarette lighters off the wall, and the woman snaps at him to put it back. "But how am I going to light stuff?" he asks as he dumbly stares at the lighters.

The woman is still pushing her carriage as she again asks him to put it back. As he finally does, she says "I just want to get out of here. All these people are making me nervous."

I would not be writing this blog were it not for the next sentence that came out of her mouth:

"This whole city has been invaded."

As a movie buff the first thought in my mind was that maybe this woman saw several flying saucers on the way there. Hey, it could happen. Little green Neptunian creatures came into our atmosphere and said "Fuck Los Angeles. Fuck London. I wanna see where Adam Sandler grew up."

But then I thought maybe it has something else to do with a deeply seeded racism and maybe a bit of agorophobia. Manchester, New Hampshire is really not a diverse city at all. There is a small population of blacks and almost-nonexistent communities of Asians, Indians, and middle eastern descent. The Hispanic community is growing however the city is still mostly all white.

So who exactly is invading the city?

One other idea I had is that these people are just a couple of merry pranksters. They go to Walmart, Target, Lowes or wherever else a number of people may be within earshot and then say something like this, in the hope that one of those people will blog about it.