Since I have taken over the grocery shopping, I find that both the help and the customers in the stores around here are friendly and polite. It doesn't seem to matter what kind of store it is either, big or small, everybody seems to be on their best behavior when they're in a shopping environment. I think I have told you about some of the hostility I ran into in certain stores when I first came to Cheboygan, but it's been a long time since I've seen anything like that around here. I think that some of those old store owners had all the steady customers they wanted and weren't really after any new business. They ran their establishments like a private club and expected you to kiss their ass to be allowed to shop there. Well, those guys are all dead and gone, and now everybody is nice to me and to each other in the local stores.
Now that you mention it, I have read about those "food deserts" before, but I had forgotten that's what they are called. National Geographic has been doing a series of articles about food and hunger lately, so that's probably where I read it. They said there is a surprising amount of hunger and poor nutrition in America, for a number of reasons. It kind of centers around poverty, but it's not just because people are poor, it's because of their circumstances and their buying habits. One reason is that, with so many single parent families and regular families where both parents work, there is nobody at home to cook nutritious and economical meals, so they subsist on fast food and junk food. In the old days there might be a grandma or elderly aunt who kept the home fires burning, but nowadays extended families seldom live together, although I have read that this trend is starting to reverse itself. Another reason is that a lot of people don't seem to know how to shop sensibly. They buy smaller packages because they cost less, without realizing that the "large economy size" is actually a better buy.
I used to know a guy like that. He's the one I told you about who put himself into TV and movie plots. We used to ride to work together sometimes and, almost every day, he would stop at the convenience store on his way home and pick up a six pack and maybe a pound of baloney or hot dogs. He would also put a little gas in his tank, which was never more than a quarter full. I tried to tell him that stuff was cheaper at the supermarket, especially if he would buy it in lager packages. He said he just didn't have the money to shop like that. One day I told him how it's done: Quit drinking beer for one week, it won't kill you. Then take the money you saved and buy a couple cases at the supermarket, and you will be money ahead. Take the money you saved and put it towards more economical food purchases. Take the money you saved from that and fill your gas tank full at the cheapest station in town, even if you have to drive a little out of your way to do it. Once the tank is full, it won't cost any more to top it off when it gets a quarter down than it costs you now to maintain it at a quarter full. He replied that rich fuckers like me just don't understand how poor people like him have to live. I pointed out that he made as much money as I did. He responded that he had four kids and I only had one. I said, all the more reason to buy the large economy size.
This guy, as poor as he was, was still able to keep a couple horses, which he took care of the same way he did his family. He would stop off at a local farm on his way home from work and buy two bales of hay, which was all he could fit in the trunk of his car. I told him he could probably get his hay cheaper if he bought a whole winter's supply in the summer when everybody was harvesting their hay. If he would offer to help the farmer bring in his crop, he might give him a reduced price and deliver it to boot. (Farmers are always looking for free help.) Then all he would have to do is stack it up and throw a tarp over it and it would keep all winter.
It so happened that I was snowbound in this guy's house for a three days once. I had picked him up for work in a howling blizzard, missed a corner, and put my truck in the ditch. The snow quickly drifted over it, and we couldn't have gone anywhere anyway because the roads were impassable. It's a good thing I had packed a hearty lunch for work, because that's almost all we had to eat for the first day. Then a neighbor came by on skis, said he was going to the store, and asked if we wanted anything. My friend gave him some money and told him to pick up a pound of baloney, a loaf of bread, and a bag of potato chips. I offered to make a contribution so we could get something more substantial, but my friend wouldn't hear of it. He said the roads would be plowed by tomorrow (they weren't) and we could go get some more baloney or some hot dogs then. Meanwhile, his horses were chewing the bark off the fence posts because they had run out of hay. By the second day there were snowmobiles going up and down the road, packing a trail that would make it possible to walk the ten miles to my house, which I resolved to do in the morning, not wanting to spend another night in that place with those people. As luck would have it, though, the plow came through and opened the road in the night. We walked the quarter mile or so to my truck and started digging, when this nice man with a bulldozer came by and pulled me out. He wouldn't take any money, saying that he had been helping people all morning and was happy to have a chance to play with his bulldozer. We then drove to the farmer to get some hay. I told my friend that, since we were there with the truck anyway, we should get more than his customary two bales. I even offered to pay for them in exchange for three days lodging, but he said two bales was all he ever bought at one time and he wouldn't know what to do with any more than that. I guess he was right, rich fuckers like me just don't understand how poor people like him have to live.
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