(no subject)

[meganbmoore]

 Talking to prozacparkabout ages a little while ago, I was reminded of fun times at Wal-Mart earlier today.  Well, yesterday.

Basically, I needed toilet bowl cleaner, and I prefer to use self-checkout unless I'm getting something that I know has to be approved because of age.  Which apparently includes toilet bowl cleaner.

So the lady came over and saw what was wrong, looked at me, looked at the date, then looked at me again.  I told her I was 27.  She punched in the approval code and said there was no need to exaggerate. (I guess she thought I was being snippy?  It wasn't my intention, I thought she just needed me to clarify...Anyway...)

I DO NOT LOOK THAT YOUNG!!

...

Do I?

(Mind you, only a few on the f-list could actually answer that...)

Really, I'm used to being mistaken for a college student, but it's been a while since someone wasn't sure if I was legal or not.

What is it that's the danger with toilet bowl cleaners, anyway?

Also, I would like to announce that, while examining the 99 cent aisle at the bookstore, I tried very hard to diversify my reading (or at least my backlog) a bit.  Which means I very womanfully tried to resist my instinctive tendency to sniff at anything that isn't historical/fantasy/sf adventure/romance/mystery.  With limited results.  I'll likely unleash the recent acquisitions into the wilds of the backlog after a couple things I'm waiting for get in.

And now I shall stop spamming you.  And go to bed.

Comments

[coraa.livejournal.com]

...toilet bowl cleaner?

Weird.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Maybe teens drink it on a dare?

[woodburner.livejournal.com]

That's bizarre. All I can figure is it has something to do with huffing, although huffing is still plenty illegal even if you're over 18...

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yeah. And, really, all those things are more likely to be done by college students on a dare that teenasgers. I don't think the world gets that 18 is not a cut off point for stupidity...

Common sense is.

[annwyd.livejournal.com]

I'm twenty-three and I'm used to getting double-takes when I present my ID. A bartender down the shore was sure I was thirteen, although most people put me at closer to seventeen or so.

I...am very bad at diversifying my predominantly sf/f reading. Although every so often I'll read some non-fiction to balance it out. Usually weird or funny non-fiction, though.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

21-21 is what I usually get mistaken for these days.

This still ended up mostly historical fiction, but at least with a more serious/literary bent. It's inthe backlog, at least. Now to see if it actually gets read.

[southerndave.livejournal.com]

You probably just set off their "no young person in their right mind cleans toilets unless someone else makes them" suspicious-person detectors. It doesn't sound like going to the chemist or anything, at least (the last time my sinuses played up I had to fill out some sort of written examination just to get a box of Sinutabs. Cue flashbacks to School Certificate exams...)

Mind you nobody's ever thought I was younger than I was... even when I was 17 I had no problem being served in a pub (back when the legal age was 20). Must have been the beard that fooled them...

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yeah...I was mistaken for my 14 year old brother's girlfriend at 17. *slightly scarred*

[toxictattoo.livejournal.com]

Toilet bowl cleaner?!? Wow.

Hooray for you for trying to diversify reading...wish I had that kind of resolve. [sigh]

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Well, the books are there. Let's see if they ever get read.

[prozacpark.livejournal.com]

What I want to know is this: Is it legal to get high on/drink toilet bowl cleaner if you're of age? If she's checking for age, then there must be some rules to it, and I must find them. ;)

Can you imagine offering toilet bowl cleaner to guests? "Tea, soda, or perhaps some toilet bowl cleaner to ease your mind?"

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I think it's the assumption that 18 is the magic age where you suddenly go from a brainless kid to a wise adult. Clearly, lawmakers have never been to college.

[desdenova.livejournal.com]

Well, what *is* the legal age to buy toilet-bowl cleaner at Wal-mart? Maybe it's 25!

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

18. I was looking at the date on the screen and thinking "you can't possibly think I was born as recently as 1990..."

[joketsu.livejournal.com]

I never get carded. My loving sister thinks it's because I look ten years older than I am. Or more. :(

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I don't think I've ever been taken for my age in my life.

[laura-holt-pi.livejournal.com]

In Britain in the 90s, we had a situation where virtually every week some kid was dying from sniffing glue, hairspray or cleaning products. Age restrictions were put on a lot of products, which I, at the time, thought was silly. However, these days, the death rate is much lower than it was.

I used to often get asked if I wanted a child fare on the bus (well into my 20s). It was a nasty shock recently to be asked if I was a pensioner when buying cinema tickets. I'm 38!

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I think I tend to associate that kind of thing with college dares more than high school. When I was in high school, they seemed to mostly limit it to the normal beer and cigarettes, with some druggies. College was when they started with things that aren't meant to be a drug of some sort.

[laura-holt-pi.livejournal.com]

Here it was mostly kids between 9 and 14, too young to pass for adults and buy drink.

[logically.livejournal.com]

I have the being carded issue, too. Though, I'm 22, so perhaps it's more justified. I've noticed a lot of Walmart checkers have a chip on their shoulder about such things. At least in my area. :P

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was taken for 17-18 when I was 22. Depending on what shift you get, that seems to be a common problem with wal-mart checkers.

[swanjun.livejournal.com]

Ours are certainly surly.

I generally don't get carded now, since I look sufficiently over 18 and have a wedding ring and all of that, but people are usually surprised to learn that I am over 30. They typically think that I'm 27-28, which pleases me just fine. My mother is similar; she's 56 and looks 45 or so. Yay for genes!

[telophase.livejournal.com]

It's nice that I'm no longer being carded, although it's still sort of flattering at the kinds of places that card everyone, no matter their age, to see the server do a double-take at my birth year. XD

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I sometimes wonder if I'd get carded if I actually drank.

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

...what is it with places carding people these days?

Also. What a pointless thing to be carded on.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I wasn't even carded, actually. Just, stared at. (Though I was getting ready to pull out my license.)

[wistfulmemory.livejournal.com]

I usually get the opposite reaction as people tend to think I'm older than I really am. When I was 17, I was asked if my boss (who was about 10 years older than me) was my husband and my 17-year-old coworker was my son. Oh, and when I was 21, I went to a con with a friend (who was the same age as me but who tends to look younger than her age), and I was asked if I was her mother.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Oh, when i was 17, everyone though my 14 year old brother was my boyfriend. I'm still scarred by that. It didn't help that people assumed that through college, too. (He's over 10 inches taller than me, we look nothing alike, and he hugs me when he sees me...clearly, there is only one reason for that!)

[wistfulmemory.livejournal.com]

That is very traumatizing. I'm glad that's never happened with my brother (who's four years older) and me. You can definitely tell we're related, and I've had people ask me if we were twins (including a staff member at the college we both attended, which highly confused me as my brother had been going there for four years and I was just starting).