Twisted Thursday – Following the Lemmings into the Storm

What a better Twisted Thursday could there be than the insanity that people show when a storm comes.

I think I’ve found this to be more true in New England than in the Mid-west.  In Ohio we were generally just react as: “eh, great… gotta shovel”. In New England though it’s a whole different ball of wax.

I remember the first time I went to the grocery store before a storm. I was going to get some bread and a steak or two. The place was a mad-house! The aisle that had bottled water was completely empty and every single register had a line a mile long. I walked over to a store employee and I said, “Is there something happening that caused everyone to go and clean out the store?”

I was expecting her to say, “Oh, yes, a water main broke.” or even “You didn’t hear about the hurricane?” What she said instead shocked me. “The storm is coming tomorrow.”

Keep in mind, we were expecting four to five inches. I looked at the employee and said “I don’t get it, it’s just a snow storm.”

She flatly looked at me and said, “Everyone goes out and buys a ton of groceries before the storm.” as if this was a completely normal thing.

So, what did this teach me? Don’t go shopping when a storm is coming. It’s absurd… you’d think World War III was coming and people thought they wouldn’t be able to get to the grocery store for the next three weeks.

Amused, I got in line and asked a woman who had three cases of bottled water why she was buying so much water. She replied, “We might lose power.”

“Hmm… and losing power has what to do with water?” I asked. “Wouldn’t it make more sense to buy batteries or a generator?”

“What would you do with a generator?” she asked. That was when I decided to halt the conversation, but before I did she added, “Besides everyone goes out to get some emergency groceries before a storm.”

That was when I came to notice something about a specific body of New Englanders.  Keep in mind, this doesn’t apply to all. Most of us are quite normal. However, there is a group that does things simply because everyone else does. I suppose you even have these people in your area, where-ever your area might be. I like to call them the blind followers or the lemmings. They watch someone jump off a cliff and want to go along for the ride.

As far as I’m concerned, they’re welcome to. It’ll be less lemmings to drive me nuts during the snow storm. I’ll just sit, drink my coffee and enjoy the fire as the snow falls and lemmings grocery shop.