Defending the regular

We have a regular customer (actually, he's here so much he practically lives at the library) named Jim (AKA Hairy Legs). I've blogged about him in an earlier post. He's annoying but harmless. He drives a battered old pickup truck stuffed full of his belongings, with everything but the kitchen sink strapped onto it. I'm not kidding - this man has a rubber raft, six coolers, a bike, a kayak, a surfboard, a trash can and god knows what else strapped to the roof and back of his truck. I don't honestly know how he keeps it all from falling off! The staff and I have often wondered whether his truck is his home - seems pretty likely.

The other day a snooty-looking woman came in and conspiratorially said to me, "What's the story on that truck out there?" I knew perfectly well what truck she was talking about but played dumb, not wanting to get into any kind of gossip with this totally unknown person. She said, "You know, the one with all that stuff strapped to it!" I admitted I recognized the truck she was talking about, but then she asked "Do you know who drives it?" Suspicious of her motives, I lied and said "No, I have no idea. Why do you need to know?" She said, "Well, I was just curious. I mean, it's RIDICULOUS!! Is that person homeless? Who would carry that kind of crap around with them? Honestly, it's really disgusting."

Now, I don't really care for Jim - he's a pain in our ass - but this woman just pissed me off with her snooty, holier-than-thou attitude. What a snob. I actually felt very defensive of him - in a way, he's one of our own. Weird.

So I basically continued to play dumb and she wandered away.