Younger Than Springtime

Here's my gratuitous plug for Eastman's: they have the most attentive sales staff of any store in town. They are also one of the only stores left on Main Street that sells anything useful. I mean useful in a utilitarian way: cookie sheets, bulbs for night lights, glass cut to size, keys, that sort of stuff. Main Street does have two books stores which are useful in that special book-store way. And I'm grateful for our independent toy store because it gives my dad something to do with the kids on rainy Fridays, and saves me from the Wal-Mart when we have to shop for birthday party gifts.
For H's birthday I got him one of those kid-sized wheel barrows from Eastmans. I knew they had them because there was one on display in the store window. But when I asked for it: "the Red Rider wheelbarrow," I got a blank stare from my young sales assistant.
"A what?"
"You know, the little red wheelbarrow."
"Oh, you mean a Radio Flyer wheelbarrow."
"Right," I said. "That's what I meant. Red Rider's the brand name of the bb gun the kid wanted in A Christmas Story."
"Oh yeah," said the clerk, "I used to love that movie when I was a kid."
I looked hard at him. He was 17 tops.
"I'm sorry," I said, "but you're still a kid."
Can you believe I said that? It's just the sort of thing somebody's mother would say!

song: Younger Than Springtime • soundtrack: South Pacific