old irrate italian man?

today on my way home from work, i stopped at the local supermarket to get dinner....little did i know what the grocery had in store for me.

a perfectly normal, unassuming trip to the grocery store was interrupted in the frozen food department (which is right next to the produce section) where i was mildly berated by an old irrate italian man as he slung his nectarins into a plastic bag....i assume he was italian because as he raised his voice to utter what could have been complete nonsense or some prophetic statement, all it could make out was "italia"....

why he was screaming at or to me, i will never know....

maybe he was cursing the fact that i was reaching in the cold case for some meatless meatballs (made of tofu or something like that)....something simply unheard of in "italia"

maybe he was praising the nectarins he was piling into his bag and wanted to share his love of this summer fruit

maybe he was belatedly cheering for the world cup soccer winners "italia"

pondering his outburst i made my way through the check out and out to my car and caught a final glimpse of the screaming italian as he tied his bag of mostly ripe nectarins to the front handle bars of a white beach cruiser bike with white walled tires

and as he tied he muttered and spit. more words making there way out into the world with no one around to interpret. i wondered how long he had lived his life this way.....riding his bike to the store to buy fruit, hollering at unsuspecting customers and possibly dreaming about his life back in old "italia"