“Serving overseas as a small-town boy from America has been intense, stressful and humorous! Enjoy a light-hearted story with me from our last twenty years overseas!”
—Matt
Waiting in Line isn’t Easy
Waiting in lines is becoming a thing of the past in some ways. I remember the long lines at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles and other departments, but now one takes a number and casually sits down. Maybe airports are America’s last place where waiting in line is common place, outside of Black Friday Sales each year. As a kid, I thought it was amazing to watch TV reporters interview crazy shoppers who had camped out in line for a super deal on a television.
No need to worry about technology making lines obsolete globally, as line waiting is still doing quite well in many countries. Line waiting takes on an especially sophisticated and vicious nature in places where communism or dictators existed as they experienced some pretty bad ones with the shortages they experienced. We learned quickly that the nice, little elderly lady or gentleman was often the most expert at cutting in line, having had a lot more experience under harsher times.
My most dreaded line experiences were waiting for appointments to renew our residency to stay in an overseas country. There were no appointments at the time, the office hours of the department lasted just five hours, and it was first-come-first-serve. Once it got near the closing hours, those waiting in line were turned away and had to come back the next day and wait in line again. People would arrive at four or five in the morning and start waiting. I would arrive early in the dark and huddle in line with a group of others (many coming from some pretty rough countries). I sat there on a dirty sidewalk in an unfriendly neighborhood with our most important documents in hand, hoping not to get robbed. My wife and kids would arrive later in the morning (in the light) right before the office opened and join me until we finally got in.
If I had to pick between waiting in line for a television in a shopping center or waiting in line in a dingy neighborhood to submit paperwork, that wait in the long line for a Black Friday Sale does not look so crazy as it once did as a kid.
Something similar ever happen to you? Contact me and let me hear your story!
mattsmishaps@gmail.com Matt’s Mishaps, PO BOX 114, Grabill, IN 46741
