Friday, July 03, 2009

when i grow up, i want to be a supermarket cashier.

there's this cashier at the A & P in Jersey City where The Cute and i shop. for the past two years, we've always made an effort to go to her when we're there because she's the sweetest, friendliest lady ever. she almost makes my heart melt with gratitude. the first time she rung us up, i was so touched by her kindness (she's an aberration amongst Jersey City grocery store employees, i hate to say), i think i said to The Cute:

oh my god. i love her. i want to take her home.

she's very serene and soft-spoken. always patient, always helpful. i imagined she must live a pretty quiet (read: lonely) life. a single spinster who goes to church every Sunday, sings in the choir, knits, collects canned food labels for the local elementary school, eats tuna fish salad on melba toasts every day for lunch.

you can imagine my surprise when i saw her in a preview for America's Got Talent. first, i freaked out. second, i assumed she was going to sing a church hymn, "How Great Thou Art" or some such ditty. third, i was pretty certain she was going to be bad. really, really bad. my heart hurt for her. a sweet, little, unassumming lady was going to be humiliated on national television!

i missed the show, but i was digging around on hulu.com last night, and i found this clip of her performance.



i've never been so happy to be so terribly and completely wrong.

Carol Lugo is my hero.

11 comments:

vesta44 said...

That has to be one of the coolest videos I've seen. She certainly surprised everyone :)
Just goes to show you can't judge a book by its cover.

*Christie* said...

I saw her on the show and thought she was SO cute and funny!!! How amazing that you actually have met her in person!

Danielle Filas said...

Oh! Oh!! I just LOVE her. And I love your story! I'm typing through tears. Sometimes life just sneaks up and whispers in your ear to remind you to have fun. Carol Lugo is one of those whispers. OK- enough typing, I have to post this and watch the vid again. Thank you for sharing! Yey for the wacky folks! "All the freaky people are the beauty of the world."

Anonymous said...

She is so cute!
I hope I have that much energy if I make it to be that old.

hope505 said...

OH. my. GODD!!! What a sweet lady and what a wild performance! She even moonwalked!! I hope I am that agile at her age...
* : )

margaux said...

i know, vesta44! carol taught me so much, and i'm sure she has no idea!

i consider myself very lucky, christie, she's just as charming and lovely in person.

oh, danielle! carol is definitely a whisper... loud and clear. i'm actually going to take a dance class this saturday night in her honor. i'm so excited!

amen, julia and hope505. reminds me to keep working out the kinks so i can groove w/ the best of 'em when i'm 62.

carol truly proves that age is only a state of mind! and gray hair means nothing!

I Hate to Weight said...

what happened? did she move on to the next round? great, great post. hope you don't mind sharing a hero!

margaux said...

i don't know, lissy! i didn't get to see the episode, and i couldn't find anything on the internet about whether she moved on or not. anyone know?

i do NOT mind sharing a hero. the more the merrier. perhaps we should make "carol lugo fan club" t-shirts? YES!

Danielle Filas said...

Thought you might dig this... seems like the little guy might be cut from the same cloth!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ke93HhtH70

Peter Von Brown said...

Fabu. Just plain fabu. :D
She's what's good about the world - unabashed fun. Suddenly she had strings! Brava!
Thanks for sharing...

margaux said...

i've seen that little boy before, danielle! he is my heart. thanks!

and you are welcome, peter. "suddenly she had strings!" i looove that.