Crumbs From the Corner: Adventures in Woolgathering

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

The Secret Language of Vending Machines



I was wholly absorbed this afternoon in watching a fellow watching a vending machine. As he examined its contents, both the sugar-laden and the salty variety, he was all the while laughing. He wore an enormous grin as he squinted through the grimy glass at all the dangling , displayed treats. And he laughed. He laughed at the packets of peanuts and the bars of chocolate and the day-old sandwiches; but what he found mirth in remained classified.
I was not very much alarmed. Truth be told, when I reflected, I was eager to learn the laughing man's secret, to know the joke and to find amusement, however faint, in brightly lit snack dispensers in an otherwise prosaic and commonplace bus station.

4 comments:

Pappy said...

The, he was probably laughing at the prices. He just couldn't believe people would pay good money for such minimal sustenance. The nervous laughter of someone who needed a snack, but couldn't afford the absurd prices charged in vending machines. I do the same thing when I pick up a two pack of men's briefs and see a price tag of nearly twenty dollars. Pappy

hele said...

what a title.

what a post.

i am still smiling :)

Anonymous said...

One get either get angry or laugh at the antics these machines seem to play on us all from time to time.

I choose the latter simply to save my sanity.
Steve

Phyllis Hunt McGowan said...

Texican, I thought he might have been laughing AT the items. As in, "you're trapped in there, and I'm free." But that was my guess ;) A mad one, really. Who knows.

Hele, keep smiling :)

Steve, you're probably right- you're better off that way. If you can't laugh... as they say.

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