Common sense is a quality that is rapidly disappearing in this country thanks in due part to political correctness, government regulation, sleazy politics, religious zealotry, litigation, and just plain stupidity. Sorry to break it to you Sarah Palin, but your child is RETARDED! According to the 2002 edition of the Merriam-Webster Medical Dictionary, the word is defined as, “slow or limited in intellectual or emotional development: characterized by mental retardation.” Downs Syndrome is one of the milder forms of mental retardation. Your attempt to make political hay out of someone else’s use of the word in a private meeting is not only sleazy political posturing; it is also RETARDED. Sorry folks, that woman just pisses me off, and I had to get it off my chest. What this post is actually about is the growing lack of common sense when it comes to the purchase of cigarettes and tobacco products by adults.

This morning while standing in the checkout line at the Ft. Chiswell FOOD COUNTRY USA, I witnessed a teenage clerk, who is not old enough to purchase tobacco products herself, send the woman in front of me, who was obviously in her late 60s or early 70s, back out into the cold to retrieve her driver’s license from her car to prove she was over 18. The same thing happened to me a couple of months ago in the same store. When my turn to checkout came, I asked the clerk why she did that, and she told me that an employee had been caught last year in an undercover sting selling cigarettes to an underage person and now all employees were required to card EVERYONE or they would be sent home.

The other day when I purchased my weekly carton at another establishment, the cash register pinged and the clerk, who was in her 40s, looked at my gray hair, laughed and said, “I’m sorry, it does that when we sell cigarettes. I guess you’re over 18.” I laughed and relayed my previous experience at Food Country to her. She then told me of an even more outrageous experience. Her 84-year-old mother, who uses a walker, was unable to produce a driver’s license because she hasn’t driven in years, was not allowed to purchase a pack because she had no way of proving her age. AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGH! My head is going to explode!

I understand that smoking is a disgusting and dangerous habit. It is not only harmful to oneself, but to those around you. It truly saddens me when I see a young person light up, and I don’t have a problem with the recently passed ban on smoking in restaurants and other public buildings. But the hysteria surrounding smoking has gone too far. Over a decade ago, Del Mar, California, banned smoking anywhere in town including one’s private home. People passing thru Del Mar can be fined for smoking in their own car. But again, I digress.

This is about common sense and the lack thereof. I understand that FOOD COUNTRY USA must protect its corporate self from employees who knowingly or unknowingly sell cigarettes to minors. But an 84 year-old woman in a walker is obviously not a minor. In other areas of Virginia, it is common to see signs that read, “We card everyone under 25.” Food Country might want to consider changing their policy to that. Folks in their 30s and 40s might even be flattered when asked to produce ID, and a sweet-looking little ol’ granny can buy her damned coffin nails in peace.