A lot of my life has revolved around grocery stores. Many of the inside jokes between my mom and I were spawned at the First National in Brewster or the Pathmark in Danbury, and later at the Krogers, H.G. Hills and Piggly Wiggly in Nashville. (Right here, I could stop and veer off on a tangent entitled "North and South : Compare and Contrast Grocery Shopping Cultures"). My favorite Erma Bombeck column involved the grocery cart that had three wheels that wanted to go shopping and one wheel that wanted to go to the parking lot. We spend most of our lives sleeping. The second biggest chunk of my life has doubtlessly been spent in grocery stores.
I have learned lessons at the grocery store. Slower traffic stays right, pass on the left. Don't walk in front of a 10 year old who is pushing the buggy. Patience and a smile go a long way. Dress in layers. Milk is always in the corner farthest from the door. Check the eggs before you commit to them. Nothing is ever as good inside as it's packaging would make you believe. Most of the time, blue is not a color you want to eat. If you go to the grocery wearing the YMCA t-shirt that has the spaghetti sauce stain dribbled down the front, there is a 100% chance that you will run into the freshly coiffed high dollar neighbor wearing her mink.
God sometimes chooses to give me moments of absolute clarity about my life when I'm at the grocery store. Maybe it's because I'm there so much. A few weeks ago, there was a mom and her daughter getting out of the suburban. The mom was lifting the daughter out, they were giggling and rubbing noses... Don't get me wrong, I'm not weepy or nostalgic about my older girls growing up. Yet, there was a moment - I panicked - was I ever like that? Did I ever giggle like that with my daughters? Did I rub noses with them and lift them up like that? If I did, in that moment I was absolutely sure I that didn't do it enough.
Today at the grocery store I saw a younger-ish (not too young) woman with a small-ish (not too small) child and an olderish (not too old) woman. The ages I guess weren't as important as the roles they played, the youngish woman was out shopping with her mom and her child. The youngish woman was the one who needed the groceries, and the mom and kid were along for the ride. There are often women like this, with their children and their moms, all shopping together. In my mind, I've always seen myself as the younger women - not the moms. Today at the grocery store, for the first time, as clear as day, in my mind I became the mom. In a split second and just like that, my frame of reference and my idea of who I am shifted .... just along for the ride.
2 comments:
Seems the year for the shift... How did this happen? Say it isn't so...
Due to recession, it seems people are dumping organic for the general or less expensive organic stuff. Let's see what people are saying about much-hyped grocery stores, like Bristol Farms, Krogers, Vons, etc. From this we can get idea as to why they prefer to shop from cheaper grocery shops rather than these shops. For more details on these shops and some low end stores refer grocery stores
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