GROCERY STORE

I’m 62 years old and, in my day, women did the cooking.  So I cook a lot of meals.  I had forgotten how intimidating a grocery store was when I was a beginner.  But today, as I strolled down the aisle efficiently picking things off the shelves, checking ingredients, looking for the sales on the little tags (which I had written on my grocery list before shopping), and rushing through doing what I’ve done a million times, I passed a young lady who was standing in the aisle staring at a selection of Asian foods.  As I pushed my cart past her, I heard her exclaim (to no one I could see) with a skeptical voice, “This looks like it’s for people who know how to cook!”  We both got a good laugh out of that.

I had forgotten that feeling of being overwhelmed.  In my younger days, I was embarrassed to ask a clerk where to find scallions because I didn’t want to appear stupid.  It was years before I found out a scallion was just a spring onion.

Nowadays, I don’t care.  I’m not trying to impress the young people.  That’s an advantage old people have.

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