Now I’m beginning to understand why old people are such pains in the ass; we remember when things WERE better, nicer, higher quality, reasonably priced (relatively), easier, and get this, FASTER.
After a shock that one of the smaller grocery stores I like to frequent, Adam’s Supermarkets, in Canton, CT was renovating their entire store and believe it or not, closing their deli department, I was forced to go to the new super Stop & Shop in Unionville which I do like, but not to just run in and out the way I’m prone to do for a couple quick things. Which is what I tried to do today.
Unfortunately, after ringing up almost all of a $30.00 order, the sales clerk had to stop and ring for somebody to unlock something so that I could buy the beer and she could ring up the rest of the order. After close to eight minutes, and assuring the new clerk it wasn’t her fault but my popsicles were melting, I left.
This is progress? Years ago they put your ice cream in a freezer bag (and before you greenies get on my case, my mother reused those bags many, many times for our school lunches) which would have eased the problem at least in that one area. Should the register lock up and force a 60 year-old to wait to buy beer? No. That problem would take a bit more managing I suppose. Like applying common sense.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology
You made me remember this little grocery store that was in Dedham Square in Dedham, Massachusetts when I was a little kid. My grandmother would send me there when I was small and I’d hand her list to one of the two white-aproned brothers who ran the place. They would go around and get the items and then put the total on my grandmother’s tab. There were wooden floors and they had those rolling library ladders to reach stuff on the high shelves. For the life of me I can’t remember the name of the place, but it always reminds me of something you’d see in a movie about the 40’s, not someplace that was real in the 60’s.
Lisa, I think that much of the homeyness and simple caring survived into the sixties and seventies as it was in keeping with the hippie movement of peace and love and nature. Things changed in the eighties and nineties when communication went technical, global, and fast and quantity and speed became the goals. It’s too bad, because some of the best things about human interaction will never be known by the new generations. That’s what I mean about the old being crotchety; they know better, they remember how things could be.
The scariest thing is that my parents remembered things being made better than they were in my younger years, and now I remember things being better than now. Things really are getting worse! Quality used to be built in, now it’s a sham, a gimmick, and means nothing to most businesses. It’s all about profit. Sad.
Barbara, do you remember when we used to sneer and giggle at the labels “Made in China”? as cheap junk?
Well, now it’s regular priced junk.