I Was Shocked...SHOCKED, I Say, At Sam's Club

 My wife and I traveled the next county over to run some errands. We found ourselves at Sam's Club right around lunchtime. We weren't sure when we'd be traveling home, so we decided to grab a bite to eat.

I came away, shocked.

Shocked, I say!

For those who already know, what shocked me is nothing new--you already know. You know that the food they serve at the front of the store, namely, pizzas, pretzels, pizza pretzels, ice cream, drinks, is some of the cheapest food around. 

The increase in food has come around slowly, so much so, you don't notice it like you would if you fell asleep and woke up two years later to find everything--EVERYTHING--costs so much more. Food, gasoline, clothes, cars and car parts, it's all out of control. I'm old enough to remember when I could feed dinner to my family of six people (granted, the kids were young...) for between $10 and $15. In the fifteen years since, it now costs between $40 and $50. Just for my wife and I to eat used to cost us about $3 per person. Now it's $5 to $6.

Yes, I know I'm coming off as "Old Man Screams at Clouds," but it's true. We just accept the risen costs and move on. Today at Sam's Club, I stood in line, ordered two pieces (big pieces, mind you...) of pizza, a soft pretzel, and a large drink (large drink, mind you...). The worker told me the amount and I laughed...laughed out loud.

$5.91.

I understand Sam's Club is a membership establishment. We pay for the opportunity to step inside, even if we buy something or not. Because of that, we subsidize the cost of everything, even their deli food. Still, on a quiet Friday afternoon, I was hit with news for food reminiscent of days gone by, of a time when you can get lunch for two for less than $3 per person.

Shocking, I know...

The Way Things Once Were...

 We traveled to the county seat of Box Elder County this morning to visit our new grandson. We had some time to kill before they were home so we stopped in at the local thrift store. It's a small one, but clean and organized (for the most part...). Inside there were some of things we could have used, a lot of things we didn't need, and even things no one needs.

Such is the way of things and thrift stores.

But, it wasn't until I stopped at one particular tub that made me stop and snap a picture. 

At first, I thought they were socks--new, still in the package. Socks are good. We need socks. I checked it out. Were they socks?

Nope.

They were masks.

In the storage tub were dozens--maybe hundreds--of masks. There were ordered by the local Box Elder High School...Home of the Bees. For some reason I'll always remember Box Elder being the Home of the Bees, because as a freshman attending Davis High School (Home of the Darts...), Davis played Box Elder in the first high school homecoming football game of my high school career. And, I believe Davis beat the Bees back in the fall of 1980.

Getting back to my story, I looked those unused cloth masks from 2021. I'm thinking they were ordered for graduation, two years ago this summer. For me, timelines, as far as when things were required at not required during the pandemic are fuzzy. I don't know if by June 2021 we had ditched the masks or not. I do know that in Northern Utah, we ditched things before other parts of the country. I guess that's how it was living in sticks.

I'm no doctor or scientist, nor do I have specific facts about the usefulness of the masks, but I'm guessing simple cloth masks would not be helpful at this time, so that tub of masks will most likely get thrown out at some point, tossed in the local landfill.

It's funny how just seeing something as simple as a mask can bring us back to a previous time...to the way things once were.

Main Street...U.S.A.

 Errands, errands, errands...it never seems to end, but, of course, tomorrow is the big day so some of the required errands inflicted upon us for the past several months will stop. A few days ago, while waiting for the florist to return from an appointment, we decided to check out a local store on our city's Main Street.

As we waited for the light to change, I pointed my phone camera west and captured the vanishing point of street and sidewalk. If you go far enough, the first thing to vanish is the sidewalk, followed several miles away by the street.

The perspective disappears, but so it seems is what a Main Street in a small town means to the community, at least, in other parts of the world. On Main Street small business owners open their shops, stock the shelves, make the displays as beautiful as possible, and await the fruits of their labors. They smile when tired, laugh at dumb jokes, put in long hours, and go home tired. Children ride by on bikes and skateboards. Young couples stroll past windows meant to entice. Sometimes the advertising works...sometimes, not.

It's a world I knew growing up, a world those who choose to stay understand as well. It's a world many will never know, a simpler time, a slowed-down existence. 

The vanishing point is not only an optical illusion.

Naturally, this is evolution. People evolve and so must the businesses that cater to them. Is it better, worse? Main Streets all but disappeared when shopping malls were all the rage. The same verdict befell the malls a few decades later when online shopping became king. We've only lived in this small town a few years, but the storefronts fronting this particular Main Street remain...different names, different owners, different products, someone takes a chance to see if they can make it work to improve not only their own lives, but the lives of those in the community.

After tomorrow, something else will pop up requiring us to get in the van and head to Main Street for something. I'm glad they're there on our Main Street.

A Field Of Future Memories...

 This is the view from my office window. It's actually a bedroom, but we use it as an office. It looks directly east, toward mountains that separate Box Elder County from Cache County. I can see Interstate-15, Garland, Deweyville, but what I see the most is an empty field.

A field of future memories.

It's Spring Break here. Kids have played outside when the weather's been good. We live in a new neighborhood...there's lot of kids. It's tough to see in the picture, but there's a little electronic truck parked in the dirt, left by its proud owner because something else caught the youngster's attention and he had to leave the truck to go eat or go to the bathroom. Whatever it was, the truck stayed for a little while. Eventually, it was moved back into the garage with his parents's cars.

I suppose if we lived in a world without video games or movies on demand or the internet, the field might get used more. Still, the kids seem to have fun running in the field, playing in the dirt...basically, being kids. It reminded me of the mountain that served as our backyard. We lived on that hill, both summer and winter...spring and fall. We had adventures, built forts, rode our bikes up and down and all around. Our world was endless and our lives were better because of it.

I think of the kids playing in the field today. Twenty years comes pretty fast. Those kids will grow, graduate from school...many will leave on church missions, some won't. They'll enroll in college, or the military or get a job and begin their careers. 

The master plan of the subdivision is to extend the road east and line it with homes, both on the north and south sides of the street. More parents, more kids will call this patch of the gently rising hill home. They will play in their yards and maybe play in a field farther away.

But those kids I see playing now. In twenty years they'll return from school, from missions (both religious and military...) and look at the street. Maybe the owner of the little truck will recall the beautiful spring days when he piloted his vehicle up and down the dirt road and around the field. Will he wonder how things changed so much so fast? My guess is he will...because that's what happens when fields become streets and homes and there's nothing left but the memories.