A Lesson Learned...

I had to stop by Kroger's this morning on the way to work to pick up some fruit for some platters I was making for a catering job this morning. If you've ever been to Kroger at 4:00am, you know what a ghost town it can be. Sure, many of the aisles were filled with employees restocking the shelves, but the produce section was deserted. Anyway, I went straight to the display of honeydew melons. There were probably about 100 melons in this display-- row after row-- 10 rows high and who know's how many melons were beneath. I immediately focused on a melon located on the bottom row-- it was the largest and since they are sold per unit and not by weight, I figured I had to have this one-- it'd be enough to cover two small fruit trays. I grabbed the melon I had spotted and that's when all hell broke loose! Whoever put this display together must've been a master jigsaw puzzler-- each melon was arranged so that they were all in place, but if one of them were moved- especially the ones on the bottom row, the pile would tumble. And that's just what happened. As soon as I removed the melon from the bottom row, the upper rows began to shift and began rolling dow to fill in the gap left by the missing melon. I quickly put the melon back into place, but the row to the left was already in the process of shifting. I steadied the row with my left hand. Suddenly, the row to the right started coming down. I used my right hand to steady this row. While I stood there spreadeagle in the produce aisle, I franticly looked around for someone (anyone!) to help me get these melons back in place. No such luck-- I was alone in this. Since none of the melons were moving now, I tried to rearrange the ones I was holding-- hoping to get them back into their original position. This didn't help-- As soon as I let go of one of the melons, the rest started tumbling down. I used both hands, my stomach and one knee to keep the display intact. A few of the melons had already hit the floor and layed in pieces around my one foot that was still grounded. Luckily an employee walked up and saw my plight. While I held everything in place, he rearranged the melon display. He got a good laugh out of it and didn't charge me for the damaged fruit. As I left the honeydew section and headed towards the cantaloupes, the employee reminded me that I should always take the fruit from the top row. He didn't have to tell me twice! I've learned my lesson!