It was an ordinary day. Just got back from our grocery store shopping which my wife and I do just about every Friday. Goes back to when we were married and decided upon a day of the week in which we should head to the store to stock up with food for the remainder of the week. Didn't want to wait until Saturday, since it would spoil the entire weekend and take away from time that we could spend together doing something we enjoyed doing. When children began to appear, we didn't want to wait until the weekend since that was time to spend with the family. So, years and years ago...we picked Friday to be the grocery shopping day the week. Seemed to work well, except for weeks when something else filled Friday with needed events. In that case we did wait until Saturday to head to the grocery store. We may have had to go out for a meal on Friday if we perhaps had run out of food before Saturday. With a family of 5 that was easy to do and happened frequently. Now that we are once again "empty nesters", we can plan a bit easier and very seldom run out of food before "shopping day." But, for Carol and I, we enjoy several visits to a variety of stores every Friday which means we may have to carry over until the weekend to visit all of the "speciality stores" that we enjoy. Our main store visit is to the "GIANT" grocery store. Many of you may not have a "GIANT" store in your community, but the city of Lancaster has several stores, spread out around the many neighborhoods in the city. We also enjoy visits to the specialty grocery store known as Stauffer's of Kissel Hill. It is very similar to the Giant Store except it has a few more local products and seems to offer more local fresh fruits and vegetables. As a teenager, years and years ago, I worked for one of the city/county wide supermarkets known as the ACME Supermarket. Not quite sure what the letters stood for, but that didn't matter as long as they gave me a pay check every week. There were ACME and Weis Supermarkets just about everywhere, but they were the only supermarkets. Today there are a few other speciality supermarkets and a few WEIS Supermarkets, but there are no ACME Supermarkets....at least in Lancaster County. The pay for working at the ACME was remarkable for a young boy. You had to be 16 years old to work there, but I started with the same starting salary as an older person would have received. When I "retired", sounds better than "quits", from the Acme Supermarket, after starting a teaching job in nearby York County, I was getting $2.32 an hour. Fantastic wages for a young boy. Well.....it's time to head out the door and make a stop at our Stauffer's Store for a few special items that only they have. We do have a Stauffer's of Kissel Hill store about 5 minutes away, but we enjoy the ride to the Kissel Hill Stauffer's of Kissel Hill, since we know where all the items are and do enjoy the ride through the countryside to the store. Both stores also have nearby stores that carry fresh flowers, plants, etc. There are also a few other large grocery stores, but you can only eat so much in a week!! Yeah....I know they all have sales on different items, but paying for the gas to hit all of them doesn't make sense to me. My wife and I know where all the items are in both of the stores that we frequent and can get through the store in pretty good time. Hey....have to be back in time to watch the ball game on TV....be it a baseball, football, or even an ice hockey game. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
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