Extraordinary Stories From An Ordinary Guy: The "She Let Me Go To The Store By Myself" Story

It was an ordinary day. Friday, and it's shopping day at the grocery store. For the past 20 some years, after retirement from teaching, Carol and I have usually gone to the grocery store together. I would push the cart and she would check her list and fill the cart with items we would need for the upcoming week. On Friday we would head to our nearby chain grocery store, Giant Supermarket, while on Saturday or Sunday we would head to a local grocery store for specialty items that they would make themselves. The local store we would frequent the most was known as Stauffer's of Kissel Hill that is located to the north of our home in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Well, when COVID-19 came along, our daughter said she would feel better if we both didn't go the store at the same time. So, we began to take turns going to the store. Most times I would go to the Giant and she would go to Stauffer's.

Only two pieces of Carol lemon poppy-seed cake remain...

But, last week we switched and when I came home from Stauffers on Saturday, she knew it was a mistake. Seems I like sweets and Stauffers has a huge selection of items I love. I guess I should also tell you that Carol baked one of my favorite homemade cakes on Friday, a Lemon Poppyseed, that is great for dunking in milk. And, then our son Derek and daughter-in-law Barbara stopped to check on us and brought a half-dozen Long John's for us.

And...only one Long John remains

Oh yeah, we also had 6 boses of Girls Scout cookies delivered the middle of the week. As I unpacked the bags from Stauffers I pulled out a quarter of a Key Lime Pie, a bag of white and brown cream-filled cookies, a bag of Chips Ahoy! cookies, three boxes of Tastycake cupcakes, a plastic tray of vanilla wafers and a container of nonpareils. Oh yeah...I did buy a chicken, a big piece of pork and two very thick steaks, but I guess that didn't equal the half-dozen items loaded with sugar! Well, Carol was happy to have me go to the store, but wondered how I was going to eat all the desserts I had bought. Well, that was three days ago and the cake is almost gone, the Long John's have one remaining and half of the container of milk is gone. Hey, by next Friday all the treats, except the Girl Scout Cookies, will be gone and ready to be replaced. Now, I'm not sure if I'll have to go to Giant or have yet another chance to go to Stauffers. Carol is hoping the pandemic will end soon so we can get back to regular grocery shopping and I won't eat my way through yet another week or more of sugar-laden treats. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.