Alacrity: brisk and cheerful readiness – from Latin “alacritas”- “brisk”

alacrity

It was a Friday in early spring – I was preparing for a much-anticipated trip to France. A priority item was to pick up some American Express travelers’ checks at the local AAA office. (The time frame clearly predates termination of travelers’ checks.)

En route to AAA I took care of another task, stopping for gas.  That was when things started to go wrong.  For the only time ever, in my haste or in the malfunction of some mechanism, gas spurted out of the nozzle when I removed it from the pump.  Although I moved with as much alacrity as possible, my slacks got a good dousing.

Because time was running short, I opted to stop at AAA before going home to change and complete my errands. Fortunately, business was slow on that Friday afternoon, and I was able to proceed directly to the counter.  After a few moments a woman appeared at the entrance and, in astentorian voice called out to the room “DON’T PANIC!”  This seemed somewhat counter-productive since she was clearly in a highly agitated state.  She went on to announce, “There is a gas leak, and we must evacuate the building.” It was then that I realized I must be the cause of the commotion and I bravely identified myself as the source of the “gas leak.” My explanation of the incident at the gas pump may not have seemed very plausible but, on closer examination, it proved to be true.  Evacuation was avoided and I received my travelers’ checks in due course.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *