Showing ID to buy household stuff

[treadlightly]

Sometimes I feel like the last of my species.

Last night I bought a couple of jugs of windshield washer fluid at the local Wal Mart and almost had to prove 18 year's maturity. Fortunately, my lantern jaw and steely gunfighter's eyes were proof enough of a hard life cheerfully met. That, and my paunch, and the hitch in my get-along, and the snow on the roof my wife says proves a merry fire on the hearth. But I almost had to show ID to prove I was at least 18.

The only drug connection to washer fluid I've found is that it's a popular media for smugglers.

Meth dissolves in washer fluid, so we are reduced in our fight to keep the unwary masses from killing themselves with their excesses to the point soap and water are suspicious. I have to keep an ID card ready to buy mild, overpriced solvent for the purpose of being safer on the road because I might be irresponsible with it.

One of the ID's I could have shown had to do with the cocked-and-locked 1911 under my shirt.

It's unthinkable I would cause unjustified harm to a fellow human being. I was raised in the company of guns and the spirit of American freedom. I can fly by flapping my arms about as easily as I could be a drug trafficker.

As I slung my groceries over my shoulder with the same ease John Wayne carried his saddle, assuming true grit can be fat, four-eyed, and prone to wheezing, the revelations I had long ago about the true nature of armed citizenry came rushing back. There are reasons to keep your firearms close beyond their potential service in self defense.

Carry a gun as a rosary of freedom. Respect what it stands for, because it stands for you at your best and your promise not to tarnish that legacy. Carry because your kids need to see you won't let them down no matter the odds, and to show they must be ready in their time to be the strength in a law-abiding society. Carry because that morning you pledged sacred honor you would be true to moral standards exceeding the lesser expectations of statute.

And carry, at times, to get that last of a species feeling. Natural stubbornness will foster closer faith to the grand idealism behind lawfully borne firearms, and it’s oddly comforting to feel at the brink of extinction.

As long as you're the last of your species, your kind isn't gone. There's still hope.

[Jusme]

Great post treadlightly!


I got a chuckle out of it because, I too, despise being assumed to be irresponsible/criminally minded, when I need to buy my OTC allergy medicine, or a myriad of other seemingly innocuous items. I'm like you I have absolutely no idea what it would take to use these things in a criminal manner, and the fact that I am usually OC my handgun, should indicate my law abiding nature. Secondly, has there been any indication that criminals have been thwarted by these regulations, any more so than they have been thwarted, by gun laws?

[bigtek]

Secondly, has there been any indication that criminals have been thwarted by these regulations, any more so than they have been thwarted, by gun laws?

These laws, like gun control laws, are not really about crime. That's an excuse.

The purpose of these laws is to control The People bit by bit, like boiling a frog.

[ScottDLS]

Great post treadlightly!


I got a chuckle out of it because, I too, despise being assumed to be irresponsible/criminally minded, when I need to buy my OTC allergy medicine, or a myriad of other seemingly innocuous items. I'm like you I have absolutely no idea what it would take to use these things in a criminal manner, and the fact that I am usually OC my handgun, should indicate my law abiding nature. Secondly, has there been any indication that criminals have been thwarted by these regulations, any more so than they have been thwarted, by gun laws?

When I buy pseudoephedrine, I always tell them my supply of diethylamine ran out so I had to switch to "shake and bake" for my basement meth lab.

[puma guy]

I ran into the same thing when I bought some tile cleaner from Wal Mart several years ago. I make my own windshield washer solvent. Dawn dish soap, ammonia, isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol and water. You can leave out the alcohol, but I always add it for the anti-freeze effect. I always have to fill my reservoir on my daughter's car when visit; she lives in the DFW area.

[Abraham]

Is Walmart required law to make you do the id dance or is it Wally policy?

[puma guy]

Is Walmart required law to make you do the id dance or is it Wally policy?

I think it's Wal Mart.

[WTR]

I was not required to show ID. However, a manager had to approve my purchase of de-icer and brake cleaner.

[Topbuilder]

Jeez, not like you were buying a rattle can of ring-around-the-mouth or something...

[tbrown]

When I buy pseudoephedrine, I always tell them my supply of diethylamine ran out so I had to switch to "shake and bake" for my basement meth lab.

I make sure to wear my pork pie hat and sunglasses so there's no uncertainty.

[yerasimos]

When I buy pseudoephedrine, I always tell them my supply of diethylamine ran out so I had to switch to "shake and bake" for my basement meth lab.

I make sure to wear my pork pie hat and sunglasses so there's no uncertainty.

I think ScottDLS meant to type methylamine, Mr Heisenberg.

Seriously, though, a very good post by treadlightly, and I totally sympathize. Cashiers or retail people requesting identification, whether on their own excessive initiative/wannabe policeman tendencies (blame them as individuals) or when required to do so as a condition of employment (blame lies with their management or store ownership) or has been a major peeve of mine for a very long time.

[ScottDLS]

When I buy pseudoephedrine, I always tell them my supply of diethylamine ran out so I had to switch to "shake and bake" for my basement meth lab.

I make sure to wear my pork pie hat and sunglasses so there's no uncertainty.

I think ScottDLS meant to type methylamine, Mr Heisenberg.

Darn that autocorrect

[RPBrown]

I understand your feelings on this. However, when I am asked for ID to prove age, I just say thank you. Obviously they think I look a whole lot younger than I am

[aero10]

I don't know about windshield washer fluid, but a lot of chemicals, I saw brake cleaner mentioned, require you to be 18 to buy because some kids have the grand idea to use them to get high. I don't know if I've ever been asked to actually show my ID when buying any of that type of stuff. It seems just about anything with a strong odor has a requirement to be 18. Granted, I don't know if any of this is law or store policy.

[Eric Lamberson]

I conduct a steel match once a month. Two dozen cans of white spray paint--imagine the looks I get.