New book takes humorous look at Wawa culture
Not one person in Delaware County could bear ignorance to what Wawa is. The iconic, Delco-based convenience store chain draws in people from all walks of life who are looking for a quick bite to eat, a pack of smokes or to fill up their gas tanks. It’s the always open, always bustling spot where the clientele can be just as colorful and varied at 2 a.m. as it is at 2 p.m.
The cops who appear to be on security detail at the coffee section, the pajama-flaunting customers not caring about their looks as they order a hoagie, and especially those who utilize the al fresco dining option of eating on top of a trash can. Admittedly, we’ve all seen them at one visit or another.
Comedian Nick Kupsey took notice of the people who frequent the stores and wrote a 40-page e-book called “The Five People you Meet in Wawa,” a cheeky reference to Mitch Albom’s 2003 novel, “The Five People you Meet in Heaven.” Kupsey says Wawa is a far cry from the heavenly aura that permeates Albom’s novel.
“Wawa’s kind of like a trip through hell,” said Kupsey, 39, about the titling of his book. “And it’s not that the store itself is bad. I felt like it was Dante’s Inferno when you’re taking this trip … and it’s kind of like a mix between hell and purgatory. It’s the opposite of who you would meet in heaven. Who would you meet at Wawa and why would you meet them?”
What started as joke for his act evolved into a slice-of-life foray about his experiences at a certain county Wawa he frequented when he was a letter carrier for the United States Postal Service. Told as a single encounter during a lunchhour rush, Kupsey takes note of the five iconic personalities you are bound to see at any Wawa as told through his real-life experiences: the girl in pajamas; cops; workers; weirdos and the paying with change guy.
Other notable figures include the “gargoyles” of Wawa – the older guys who congregate around the trash can to shoot the breeze – and the panhandler soliciting change to “catch the bus.” Kupsey calls the latter an older gentleman who resembles video game character Super Mario, “if Mario were out on Workman’s Comp after suffering a Princess-saving related injury.”
One sentence in the book describes the checkout line as a democratic amalgam of occupations, a sharp approach about the reach and accessibility of Wawa’s appeal to everybody.
“Like castoffs thrown together at the reject table at a wedding, we’d never be together in any other circumstances,” Kupsey writes.
Kupsey said it took about five minutes to figure out which personas he wanted to highlight for the book.
“If you frequent a Wawa enough and you pay attention, you’ll see it’s the same people that go there,” he said. “It’s the same kind of daily tragedy that plays out every day. Sometimes it’s very sad, sometimes it’s funny. It’s humanity is what it really is; the spectrum of humanity in a Wawa.”
Even though he may poke fun at some of his the personas with biting observations – like the age of pajama-wearing females who frequent Wawa ranges from 13 to you should know better – he inquires about an individual person’s troubles and woes, like the girl in pajamas. In the book one of these women invites everyone into her conversations when she screams into the phone about her boyfriend in jail. When asked if everything is OK, Kupsey is met with a bark.
“Maybe if you spent less time worrying about other people’s business you wouldn’t be dressed up like some glorified paperboy!” is her response. Kupsey writes it off and goes for a cup of coffee.
Kupsey empathizes wholeheartedly with the guy who pays with change, an action that draws the ire of the customers behind him.
“The shame in his eyes becomes more palpable as each coin he lays down on the counter makes a noise like a pipe bomb ricocheting in an alley,” Kupsey wrote. He knows all too well about paying with coins, saying he would scrounge around his car for change to pay for a pack of smokes.
An experience with a pair of cops in the store is more friendly and involving. Kupsey is surprised by their ease of approach considering the societal shift from them being Officer Friendly to at times ripped as “tools of the police state who are hell bent on bullying the public.” The tone in conversation between the cops and Kupsey is playfully light and surprisingly insightful about the public’s perception of modern policing and an officer’s own reality.
The all-too-accurate observations reach outside the ordering kiosks and checkout lines of the store. For some stores, the parking lot can bring out the worst in people.
“They are hell to navigate,” Kupsey writes in the book. “I’ve seen people damn near fight one another over a parking spot only to apologize and hold the door for one another while entering. To not hold the door for either incoming or outgoing customer is akin to insulting their mother. It goes against the utilitarian spirit of both the store and the customers who frequent it.”
Kupsey said the time to write this short story was now, when people need to exude more empathy in these highly charged times.
“With how we treat each other in the world now we’ve lost empathy as a culture, as a people,” he said. “We’re fighting with each other all the time and we forget that we’re a part of something larger. To me, it’s an exercise of empathy. Do you want to make fun of these people or do you want to relate to them?
“That’s how I felt when writing it and that’s how I hope people would view it.”
Kupsey said Wawa is the great equalizer, which couldn’t be more true in the store’s birth place of Delco where we’re known for having our own culture and way of life among its varied populace. Wawa is that common link among us all.
“Somehow we all know in our hearts this store is the perfect refuge, a phalanx to hide behind when the slings and arrows of life become a little too much to bear,” Kupsey writes. “A perfect refuge indeed. This store seems built for it. It’s open 24 hours, has amazing prepared foods and a bathroom that I once saw a man shaving in at 2 a.m.”
“The Five People you Meet in Wawa” is available as a Kindle download at Amazon.com.