How Many Crackers to Eat a Stick of Bologna?

You know you live in a small town when the grocery store bagger bids you goodbye with, “You’re gonna’ do some mighty fine eatin’ this week.”

I don’t recall ever having such a comment regarding my food purchases. I suppose I should feel flattered.

Let's see. Pork chops, carrots, potatoes, eggs, butter, frozen pie crust, fruit, yogurt, bread, cookies. Certainly nothing fancy.

He’s a very elderly gentleman who’s recently been hired at the local grocery store as a bagger --  a kindly seeming old gentleman who perhaps took the job to have something to do.

The comment brought to mind the little country store where my parents shopped when I was a kid. The owner’s wife, who manned the cash register, would comment to my mother, “you must be looking for company,” whenever mother purchased anything “special,” anything beyond the basics.

She also was known to comment, “what are you going to make with this?”, as she rang up a particular item. She would then proceed to ask my mother how she made the recipe, right there on the spot.

Mrs. X, as I shall call her, was what shall I say, somewhat naive. My uncle once decided to play a trick of sorts on her. He entered the store, picked up a stick of bologna (remember when people used to buy it that way?) and took it to the cash register. In all seriousness, he asked Mrs. X if she knew how many crackers it would take to eat the stick of bologna.

Upon which she called out to her husband who was in another part of the store, and in a very loud and shrill voice, “X, HOW MANY CRACKERS WILL IT TAKE TO EAT UP A STICK OF BOLOGNA.”

Naturally, the other customers found this very amusing and laughter was heard throughout the store.

X came running to the front of the store and tried to explain to his wife that it was just a joke. Mrs. X was a good natured soul and just laughed it off.

Such was life back then.

Not everyone was as glamorous in pin curls as was Marilyn Monroe!

(When I think of Mrs. X I still see her behind that cash register on Saturday afternoon, her red hair pin pin curled to her head with bobby pins. Sometimes she covered her head with a scarf; sometimes not).

And by the way, it used to be that bologna and crackers were the snack of choice -- often the only snack people ate -- at least in this part of the country.

Life was lived at a slower pace and people were friendlier and more familiar in those days, at least in small towns.

I wonder what we would do if we received such questions at the grocery store checkout in this day and age.

On the subject of today’s grocery purchases, I found these:

Have you tried them? Highly recommended; very good. Perfect with a cup of tea.

This morning I took the following photo of the Bradford Pear Tree, which is among the first trees to flower each season. They are quite beautiful when in flower, but it is a “problem tree” in many other respects; I posted about the tree previously; read the post here.

The photos aren't very good; it was a cloudy day.

In the middle of the afternoon we got a hailstorm, of all things.

This photo taken out my back door. What looks like a mist is in fact hail falling fast and furiously!

Ice pellets quickly covered the deck.

 And when the hail storm was over, these are many of the Bradford Tree blossoms lying on the ground.

That was a big part of my day. How was yours?