Squeaking Trolley Lady

Yesterday afternoon, I decided to follow an old lady pulling a squeaking trolley.

I heard her coming as we approached each other on the high street. That baby was loud let me tell you. OK, perhaps I'm exaggerating. I do that. It was however a clearly audible, repetitive, whining squeak. Slow, like the lady.

Her trolley was just perfect. It's going to sound like a really clichéd trolley- two plastic wheels on a metal frame with a blue tartan, upright bag. That's how it was. She pulled it behind her.

What must it be like I thought, to walk about so slowly with this squeak in your ears. Unless she was deaf of course, which admittedly was a possibility.

I suppose the most authentic experiment conditions would have been to find my own squeaking trolley, but, you know. I decided to follow her along the high street and stay as close as possible.

First of all the pace was pretty tricky. I walk fast, and it felt uncomfortable to be moving so slowly. Especially as I was within touching distance of the old lady. Luckily there were shop windows just beside us so I could occasionally look into them, not forgetting of course, to concentrate on the squeak.

We plodded on and then she turned off into a side road. It was a quiet little street and suddenly our proximity seemed a bit strange. She seemed to become more aware of me because her head kept turning to the side a little. I got my mobile out and started fiddling around. There's just nothing like it for those tricky situations. While doing this I sensed her stop, turn around and look at me. I kept my head down and she eventually turned back again and carried on walking. I followed.

We walked a little further and then she caught me off guard. She turned around quickly and we came face to face. Not knowing what to do I decided to pull that chaplinesque move of just looking away like there's nothing happening. OK not really, that's a bit childish. It would have been great though wouldn't it.

I just said excuse me and walked around her. I'd had a good few minutes to feel the experience. Most interesting.