“Rikki don’t lose that number.” By Black Friday
I hate waiting in lines. I don’t care in I am standing in a line or have to pull a stupid number from a machine only to search for a place to sit. Why does it seem there are more government establishments that require numbers than civilian ones?
What scares me about having been assigned a number that I am not guaranteed to be served any faster. I have heard of horror stories about Maine’s Bureau of Motor Vehicles having waiting times that range into hours instead of minutes. I have to go there and I dread the thought. If it is as bad as I have heard from friends then there it is a good possibly of a long wait so I hope that the service is better than the wait.
I am a veteran who uses the Togus Veterans Hospital near Augusta. Yes, even there one ends up assigned a number. If I need lab work done, I have to report to the building where my medical team is located, sign in and be assigned a number. If I have to speak to a pharmacy assistant about any prescription, once again I go to a little red machine and pull a number.
I might possibly need a medical appointment for a minor medical problem that can’t wait for my next appointment. What do I have to do? I call Togus and work my touch tone phone threw a bunch of numbers until I get a recording that states all personnel are busy but my call is important so don’t hang up. Eventually another recording comes on and states I am number 15. I might wait five minutes or it might be 45 minutes or even longer.
Before you jump to conclusions, I am very happy with the service and the personnel at Togus even though they are highly overworked.
I do realize that there are places other than government offices where one has to pull that gosh darn little tab to get a number. Perhaps the most common would be the deli department in our grocery stores. I suppose that a number is needed as the deli counter is not self-service and is somewhat labor-intensive (a lot of walking back and forth). With the equipment and the amount of items in stock it probably would dig into the store’s profit if 25 people worked behind the counter.
Even there I have to make a comment. Many times I have been the only person standing by the counter and you guessed it The clerk will shout out who’s number 25? I don’t know about you but I don’t go to the far side of the store only to have to run back to the deli.
Maybe, just maybe, this numbers game could be applied to everywhere we go shopping or whatever else we have to do. Could you imagine a superstore having a waiting area where one would have to take a number in order to go shopping? I shudder to think that a surgeon would holler out something like patient number 5 is next.
What’s even worse than having to take a number is being assigned a number. Has this world become so impersonal that our names no longer are applicable? Since I was in the military for 20 years and now use the Togus hospital my Social Security number is imprinted in my brain better than my name or age. Why in heck do doctors keep asking us our age all the time? It certainly is in our medical records but then again they might not like numbers.
Numbers can also be used to praise or degrade. I remember during my tour in Vietnam two very short phrases in English that any Vietnamese person could use. “You Number One” simply meant that you were most wonderful. If the person said “You Number Ten Thousand” even a moron knew that they were not liked. Even our election results contain numbers, although I am not sure that all are true. Of course, any candidate would want to be number 1 although my personal belief is that many politicians are number 2.
I have to state that telephones make numbers terribly annoying. I often use the speed dial on my Caller ID in order to return calls. What do I hear half of the time? You have dialed the wrong number so please hang up and try again. Even worse than that is the dreaded non-human recordings that we get when calling government or a business. If you want this, press 4 now. I want to speak to a person even if they speak English so poorly I can’t understand them. Now that is Number 10,000!
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