Groceries

It was a good day for a shopping trip – well, any day is a good day for a shopping trip. This was a small-scale shopping trip – just 30 miles down the road, and we only stopped at the discount grocery store and the big box store. But it was a nice day for a drive and it was good to get out of town.

While our usual routine when I was growing up was making the 20-mile trek to town for groceries on Saturday, I remember a few times when Mom and Dad instead shopped on Fridays. It's been too long ago for me to remember why they did. But when they did shop on Fridays, they would often bring me a surprise. We had a store in town that stocked sheet music for the piano. One winter Mom would try to pick up a piece of sheet music for me every week. That was always fun.

I still have a few pieces of that music, especially the Christmas songs. They've had a lot of use over the years! Mom tended to buy the more basic, middle-of-the-road music. When I shopped the sheet music rack at that store, I would come home with the latest Beatles song. I was, though, a big fan of the music from Broadway musicals.

As I got into my teen years, I finally got to the point that it just wasn't exciting to come to town shopping every week. Part of that had to do with a Saturday morning TV show that showcased current rock and roll bands. So now and then I would opt to stay home by myself for the morning while Mom and Dad came to town. At least Mom could shop without my being picky about which checkout line we used.....that usually depended on which carry-out boys were working on that particular day!

One Saturday morning when I stayed home by myself, I heard a strange loud noise. It really made me uneasy. I peeked out the front door, trying to see what might be making the noise. The family dog was sitting in the front yard, looking at the empty driveway and making the most mournful sound. I called to her from the front door and told her she wasn't home alone. That took care of the noise. It made us all wonder if she did that every time we left.

When we moved into town during my junior year of high school, Mom went to work at the local restaurant. I think she worked six days a week – at any rate, it suddenly fell to me to do the grocery shopping. I didn't mind doing it – I had tagged after Mom for years with her shopping, and there had been frequent times that I'd done my grandmother's grocery shopping because she had to work. It just wasn't as much fun to be 17 and grocery shopping for your family. It probably would have been more fun if I'd been able to drive myself to the store, rather than being hauled around by Dad!

You'd think by this time in my life, grocery shopping would no longer be interesting or fun. But I find that I still enjoy it. There are always new products to check out, new things to try. With just today's trip, I know that in the near future we will have a batch of chili, a pot of Italian wedding soup, a yummy and healthy fudgey oatmeal that can be either breakfast or dessert. And that just scratches the surface. It's such fun to put ingredients together and see what you can create!