Thinking back...

As I prepared to go to the grocery store today, I was remembering how it used to be. Grocery stores were very small, personal stores, you knew the clerks, the floors were wooden planks and the produce sparse, but always locally grown in the summer. There was always a distinctive smell to a grocery store, and it was comforting. You knew what to expect when you went in... They weren't always air-conditioned, but they had big cooling fans, and a squeaky screen door, often with a push plate on it that advertised Sunbeam Bread featuring a picture of Little Miss Sunbeam.

There would be a big wooden butcher block in the meat department, You would place your order with the butcher and if he didn't have what you wanted in his case, he would go into the locker and bring out the meat or chicken, cut it on the butcher block and wrap it in white waxed paper that he tore off of a big role and tie it with twine from a hanger that hung from the ceiling. Then he would take a black marker that was perched behind his ear and write the price in big letters on the waxed paper packaging it.

The milk was in glass bottles that rattled when the milkman wheeled the cases into the store, the potato chips were either Chesty or Lays and "pop" was pretty much limited to Coke, Pepsi, and my very favorite, Nehi, which came from a local bottling plant. Nehi came in flavors, orange, grape and strawberry and it made the absolute BEST floats in the world...

There wasn't a big selection of frozen food, I remember having my first bag of frozen corn as a teenager, and I thought it was a wonderful thing. I've blogged before about my very favorite thing, Blue Bell Bologna, a really intense, garlicky flavored bologna that the butcher sliced, and charged fifty-nine cents a pound for. Mother would buy it in the summer when it was too hot to cook, along with a loaf of Bunny Bread, we would go home and she would make sandwiches, slathering on Miracle Whip, thick slices of tomatoes fresh from the garden and paper thin slices of red onion. Oh my, it was ambrosia... She always had potato chips and cold Showboat Pork 'n Beans with it, and a container of cottage cheese. Hubby and I still love that meal, I wonder if our boys do? They ate it often enough as children, I bet they would enjoy it again...

Today's supermarkets are so big, so impersonal, I don't like buying my meat that is vacuum sealed with some mysterious gas that keeps it fresh. We have a small market near where we live, locally owned, they still carry your groceries to the car. It's not the same as when I was a child, but it's a great store. They welcome Maggie, they say dogs come in all the time. I usually tuck her in my purse, hang my bag on my shoulder, and her little head is poking out of the top of my purse while I walk around the store gathering my groceries. The clerks all smile at her while I'm checking out and they talk to you about their daily lives. They cut their own meat, and they have lousy produce, just like in the old days. Some things are pricey, but their weekly specials are reasonable and it's a nice friendly place to stop....

They also have a senior citizens discount on Tuesdays, but so far I just can't make myself use it. I'm just not quite ready. Know what I mean, Vern???