Monday, March 16, 2009

The Long Grocery List

There is no such thing as to send Ricky to the nearby grocery store with a list of under three or four items.

“Ricki, would you please pop over and get me a bag of milk (milk comes in bags in Israel) from the grocery?”
“What else?”
“I don’t need anything else.”
“How about a (canned) drink?”
“Ricki, canned drinks are expensive and I just bought you a drink yesterday on our way home from dance class. You don’t need it…. I don’t buy myself a treat every time that I go to the store, you know. So please just get a bag of milk or we won’t have any tomorrow morning.”
“Oh, come on…” She goes over to the fridge and opens it. “Don’t we need yogurt? Grape juice? Maybe garlic?” So I squeeze another item on the list. She is not really satisfied, but suddenly her face lights up. “Hey, I can go to the vegetable store as well!” She reopens the refrigerator door. “We need red peppers…..”
We find two things she can buy at the vegetable store, and she is off, beaming. I just can’t figure out what is so bad about buying only one item……

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maybe buying more than one makes her feel more useful.

Batya said...

I was thinking that maybe only one thing seems too... "babyish" to her.

TUC said...

My guess is that shopping is fun for her and having more on the list means more to look for, to select, to carry around, to put on the counter, and to bag up. And, I confess, I hardly ever, ever buy just one thing in the store even if that is all I set out for because, well, hey, shopping is fun.

rickismom said...

The more usefull---maybe...
but the hey,its fun to shop just might be it!

Chris said...

I agree with TUC--she must like being at the store--prolongs the experience if she has more to buy.

So am I reading you post right, does she go to store alone?

rickismom said...

Yes, she goes to the local grocery and the local vegetable store on her own. HOWEVER:
-to the grocery store there are no major streets, and to the vegetable store she has someone cross her the street
-we have a charge accounts at both places
- the people at the grocery store have been amazing--putting up over the years with her sniching borekas (mideastern pastery) (they charge me, but they have to keep their eyes peeled on her.
- If she takes too long coming back I phone the stores/ go down and check what is going on

-I live in a very low-crime area (not that you can depend on that....)