The people. The smells. The colorful produce. The overwhelming amount of packaged food items. A baking sheet, a mango, a box of bow tie spaghetti, sushi, frozen turkey, PB&J, an ice cream cake, garbage bags, Tylenol, hairspray, Kiss My Face soap, soy crisps, tofu, bulk candy, Windex, dog food, granola, curry, mittens, a bouquet of flowers, a tree of rosemary, herbal tea, the alphabet in pretzels...none of which I bought on my last quick run to the grocery store, but all things I could have walked away with...oh along with a non-fat chai latte, Lisa Frank themed notebook and new paperback book, too.
Today it was the people. It was so amusing to watch...young and old zigzag throughout the store, some with a definite plan of attack, others casually strolling. The weather calls for layers this time of year and folks look a bit more plump in their stature. Rouge cheeks enter the automatic doors, only to later fade beneath florescent bulbs somewhere between aisle 5 and 13. A child detaches from her mother's pinkie and heads toward the checkout line's ascending rows of candy. While old ladies (yes, plural) eat grapes straight from the vented plastic ziplocked baggies.
This last observation was not the first, but rather one I've had countless times. The clincher, to what I thought may be a commonality of this population, was seeing more than one elderly woman pop a grape in her mouth today, which has allowed me to conclude that 1.) old ladies love grapes and 2.) don't give a shit where those grapes have been, they'll still eat them straight from the bag. Maybe it's the generation. It has to be. I've grown up in a world that is overly sensitive about germs and hygiene: hand sanitizer on every desk, Clorox bleach wipes in every home, etc. We're germaphobes. That's all there is to it. Maybe all that alcohol and bleach isn't so good for us. Have we ever thought about that? I have. But am I ready to eat my grapes sans a rinse? Let's not get crazy now.
The next time I go to buy grapes...maybe...just maybe...I'll sample one from the bag...if they're organic...
1 comment:
Grapes...love them perhaps more than any other fruit. Probably enough to eat one or two before rinsing. And the desire to do so most likely stems from the memories of sitting in Grandma and Grandpa's kitchen, talking, and mindlessly plucking grapes from their bag and popping them into my mouth! It must be that generation...the greatest generation :)
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