Many years ago, when the boys were young, I worked a full time job teaching at Lower Basementia. Farmer H worked a full time job in the city. This was before his mandatory half-day Saturdays. While I did the household shopping and the laundry for me and the boys and prepared the meals and occasionally did some cleaning...Farmer H thought the weekends were his time to relax and run around the acreage with his buddies.
Even bringing up the idea of him "babysitting" his own two children while I went to the store put him in a foul mood. So I hauled baby Pony and toddler Genius along with me. We had a minivan back then. I'd strap in both kids and hit the road for Aldi's, over in Bill-Paying Town. Back then I was still driving on the highway. It was about a 25-minute trip. But Aldi's had the best bargains. I think this was right before the Devil's Playground was built over there. I know we didn't have the one in Hillmomba back then. Just a regular version, without food.
Anyhoo...if you've ever shopped at Aldi's, you know that you set your stuff out on the counter, and the checkers shove it down to the end after ringing it up. I haven't been in years, but when I stopped going over there, they were at least putting your groceries down in the cart, so you could wheel it over to the bagging counter. Back then, you had to get it off the counter yourself, and put it back in your cart, before going to the bagging counter.
Genius was 3 years old. The Pony was about 8 months old. Not walking. So he was pretty easy to contain in his carseat thingy in the cart. I had to watch Genius, because he was an inquisitive little cootie who never met a stranger. Still, I managed. I had to. I'd tell him to hold onto the cart. Sometimes he wanted to lay on the rack underneath! I'd have him get items for me, and give him things to put in a bag of his own.
I guess one of the boys was sick one weekend, because Farmer H volunteered to do the shopping. Oh, don't think he left me home to do other things. Nope. We ALL went in the minivan. I stayed outside with both boys, while Farmer H went inside. When he came out, he was all flustered. He put the groceries in, took the cart back to get the quarter, and climbed in.
"I'll tell you one thing! You'll NEVER have to come shopping here with those boys again! I couldn't believe it! That gal was shoving my groceries down to the end, and waiting for me to put them in the cart! I've never seen anything like it! That's crazy! She acted like I wasn't going fast enough! I don't know how you do it with two kids!"
True to his word, Farmer H started keeping one or the other of the boys with him on Saturdays, long enough for me to take only one of them with me for shopping.
6 comments:
Perhaps Aldi's was like that back in the dinosaur era, but now they put things in your cart for you. If they're really nice, and you haven't bought much, they will put it all in the top compartment, right by the handle, so you don't have to ben dover ;) and chase around the rolling items in the bottom section of the cart.
One time was all it took? And women are the weaker sex? Puh. Lease.
Sioux,
Yes, Madam, they were doing that at the time I stopped shopping at Aldi's. Thus the line:
"... but when I stopped going over there, they were at least putting your groceries down in the cart, so you could wheel it over to the bagging counter."
You are not going to railroad ME in the court of public opinion for violating the Truth in Blogging Law!!!
It WAS back in the dinosaur era. Days when a cavewoman saying she broke her thong, and couldn't wear it, did not excite the cavemen. We both know who's the dainty, weak-kitten, mewling, needs-a-fainting-couch sex is. And it ain't US!
Also, let the record show that I stopped shopping there because of the distance, once I discovered the Hillmomba Save A Lot. Not to be confused with the Sis-Town Save A Lot. Which is a dump.
Back then, in the dinosaur era, it was also possible for an overweight, wrinkly and out of shape 50-something woman to say, "I'm so hot" and a group of students would NOT burst into laughter, due to their disbelief.
Although, back then, crocs were never capitalized. They were only reptiles. So the past gives, and the present does too.
Sioux,
Whew! I think I pulled an undefined abdominal muscle while heehawing. Kids laugh at the darndest things. Like when an elderly colleague who taught the Behavior Disorders class in Steelville, MO, told a couple of her middle school boys to quit fingering each other... She meant to stop poking. Which isn't much of an improvement if she'd said THAT instead.
We have Aldi's here now, I don't remember for how long, but I rarely shop there, It's a bus ride away, they NEVER have what I want, and they still shove everything down to the end of the checkout for you to bag or put into your trolley to bag yourself at the bagging counter. That last part might have changed by now, I haven't been there for about three years.
River,
They had off-brand products I really liked, but Save A Lot has good meat, and is closer. That's the only place I buy my meat. The Devil's Playground injects their meat with saline, so you're paying for salt water! It's really obvious when cooking their hamburger. It's water running out, not grease! Also, their chicken shrinks down when the excess water cooks out.
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