The Gleam in My Husband's Eye

No, no...not that! He gets that glazed over look when we are out of produce and a trip to the grocery is warranted. We do this about once every two weeks. A visit to Valli Produce in Rockford is an outing for us. We both love this store. It's an ethnic market that specializes in hard to find foods and produce. Wonderful produce. We left on this below 0 day, to fill our crisper drawers with fruits and veggies. Yesterday, I went to make a salad and had slim pickins. When I mentioned this to Joe and talked of cabbages and carrots and bananas and so on...he leaped out of bed and got ready to go in record time. He had to wait GRUMBLE, GRUMBLE, for me to get ready. We left with no food in our stomachs. A bad thing for two hungry people visiting their favorite store.When you enter the store the beautiful produce is the first thing you see. Mounds and mounds of apples, oranges, pears....you get the picture. We just cruise through this dept...each hitting the things that we love. I'll look over and he'll be selecting tomatoes while I am squeezing the melons. We see old friends shopping and stop to visit and compare carts while we are visiting. The weather is going to be bad tomorrow, so many senior citizens were out doing their thing. Taking up parking places, blocking aisles, checking their lists, looking like they are lost, squeezing the melons, tapping their fingers, whistling a little tune to ourselves, asking questions, reading over head signs with bifocals, trying to see on the bottom shelf with trifocals.... you know all the complaints about us. We might have blocked the aisle while visiting with a friend, but it wasn't crowded and no one seemed in a hurry. You have to give us senior citizens some leeway....our brains are slowing down a little, many of us have problems with walking fast, and we live a more secluded life than before....so when we get out we like to visit with people.I would never block the aisle on purpose, but stuff happens :) Hey, we are retired and we live here too. If you're younger and reading this...you'll be here someday in our stage of life. It's no fun...growing old, so we take our pleasure when it comes. I didn't mean for this to sound like a rant, but once I start typing it just flows out of my brain to my finger tips. We had a nice experience at the store...We went at a time when the store wasn't busy, I helped a few people who were older than me, we got a lot of things to eat, and best of all...Joe took me to breakfast afterward. I had Swedish Pancakes. All in all a pleasant way to spend a morning...before the storm.

Balisha

Sorry if I offended anyone with this post...I just remember my Mom and Dad at my age. They used to go to the store almost everyday and it was usually the highlight of their day. They are gone now, but I find that we have taken their place in the grocery line. B