Phyllis just would not accept injustice.  OK, to be more accurate, Phyl wouldn’t accept what Phyl perceived as injustice.   In this, Phyllis was genius.  Phyl’s brilliance in clipping the system was nothing less.  None of her moves were untoward; she didn’t lie or break laws.  She just used that feigned innocense and that incredible smile you see in every photo, to tweak the perception of the big boys, to undo their injustices.  (I know someone’s going to think I’m exaggerating phyl’s maneuvers, but I assure you, I’m not.)

1) Phyl clipped coupons.  Lots; placed in her everpresent coupon box. She’d talk to the shoppers behind her in line, simply so they wouldn’t take a fit, in a few moments, when she talked about kids to the checkers and paid with 600 coupons.

She always foodshopped at Vons and Ralphs because of their policy to double coupons.  When they dropped that policy, Phyl was not happy.

Proud to say, the only one of the thirty electives more prized and requested than our drama class was phyl’s student library aide positions.  (Aside: as her scholarship, she most often chose the lonely, bullied, or problem kids.)   There were two students per period chosen and Phyl did so much of the library work herself, that they always had downtime.  Fortuitously, (what-are-the-odds?) three seconds after the supermarket policy change, suddenly Phyllis’ new instruction to the student-library aides included teaching how to use food coupons, to save money for their families, by searching the library’s sets of daily L.A. Times for coupons.  Every once in a while, one of the kids’ exercises was to find and clip coupons they could share.   Many of the searches were for things like Fancy Feast cat food, Diet Coke, Windex, and Weight Watchers ice cream.  What a coincidence that these were things Phyl always bought.

When Phyllis went to the Agoura markets, she always made friends with the managers and checkers.  She brought them coupons they themselves needed, or little gifts.  I wrote of manager Harry and the folks at Kanan Ralphs who cried when I told them about Phyl.  Their friendships also helped with the aforementioned coupons.  She’d shmooz her checker friends, as she’s go through the line, and then give them ten or so coupons, including expired ones and ones for items she’d not even bought.  They’d always take them.  If, once in a million years, there were a problem, there was that incredible Phyllis smile, and her manager friends would OK it anyway.

more tricks to come.  myphyllis was remarkable.