My maternal grandmother, Evelyn, liked to shop- sort of similar as how some people like to breathe. Gramma and Mom would enjoy going shopping every day while Dad was at work. We would shop for clothes, household decor, craft supplies, gifts, and just the general bargain, but the one thing that we shopped for every day was groceries.
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| Aunt Mae: "Get ready, get set, SHOP!" |
Gramma's older sister, our Aunt Mae, liked to shop even more, but when it came to groceries, she was much more rigid in her system. She would get all the flyers from the Sunday paper and then make her List. Unfortunately for all of us, and many stockboys, she always had access to the Sunday papers through her nephew, Uncle Chucky. He had a paper route of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, with over 300 customers, for over 40 years, all committed to his autistic memory, since he couldn't really read. There was no way to prevent Aunt Mae from getting her Sunday paper and all the flyers with a connection like that.
Aunt Mae was a generous soul, but she liked being generous only to her family, not to the stores, who were trying to take the money that she planned to use to spoil all of us. So she would sit surrounded by flyers, like some conquering general surrounded by maps, and make a battle plan for the week. This store had an 8 oz. cream cheese on sale. Another store had a special on 5 lbs. of flour. A pound of butter was a bargain at yet another establishment. Not one penny would be wasted on higher prices.Aunt Mae was a tactical genius, and she had troops at her disposal. Since she, herself, didn't drive, Gramma was her Chief of Transportation. Sometimes Gramma started grumbling about being on her feet from the 4 AM paper route, followed by her morning shift at the counter of the Donut Shop, and began saying very unkind things about her older sister. I quickly learned a little boy got in trouble for repeating those things, but Mom would try to head off open revolt by driving Gram's big car and helping with The List.
Aunt Mae had no problem executing her campaign solo, but she wasn't the fastest walker. In spite of the early morning start of the initial charge, if Mom had any hope of being at home before her husband's work day ended, we had to pick up the pace. Aunt Mae would push her cart and we helped supply her with the provisions, one at a time, as she would not let anyone else see The List, in case such valuable intel should fall into the hands of insurgents.
In spite of Aunt Mae's age, no one had her stamina. Chucky was always the first to go. She would jolly him along for a bit, calling him "Charlie", her personal nickname, but after being sent back to get the 10 oz. can, not the 14, he would tug at his shoes and complain about his feet before heading to the bench up front, muttering obscenities. Gramma would try to be patient with her bossy sister for a little longer, but then she would join the rebellion and off to the bench, also muttering obscenities. That left Mom and little me to do all the running. When I was in school, matching was not a problem, I learned it in the trenches with Aunt Mae- being shown a picture in the flyer and sent on the foraging mission to find it in the aisle. An EXACT match.
The poor stockboys quickly learned to avoid the shuffling grande dame with the flaming red hair. She considered them part of the enemy camp, trying to sneakily cheat her out of the 2 cents difference by offering her the size that was not on sale. A slight problem was that Aunt Mae needed glasses, but was too vain to wear them, so she really did need their help in finding the exact item on sale. In reality, they just wanted to grab the item she asked for and get back to work without all the disapproving head shakes and tut-tutting. She could clear an aisle of all employees in every grocery store in Cleveland in record time. I think that after a while, the only time she got any help was through the hazing of new employees by the veterans.
This weekly campaign under General Aunt Mae was grueling, since the List involved battles at multiple store Fronts. We followed the List from store to store, and then to another store, making sure that her apartment Headquarters was able to keep her battle-ready for another week. Mom and Grandma did not do their own shopping at the same time. There had been quite a few incidents of melted ice cream and food spoilage while waiting for her to finish. This meant secret forays another day, back to the grocery store to shop normally, and we would rather pay the 2 cents difference on an item than to take the chance that any of the employees might recognize us.
While this type of shopping was extreme, it illustrates that there were many grocery stores available within less than a mile from our house in Cleveland, and 24 hour convenience stores within walking distance on most corners. Acquiring food was so easy, that it could be turned into a very complicated task.
So after our departure from Cleveland to rural Pennsylvania, it was a bit of an adjustment for my poor mother. I can't say that she didn't enjoy getting to stay home for a change at first. However, the nearest actual grocery store was about 40 minutes away- that's one way, not round trip. There were little stores nearer, but they were small and couldn't stock much variety. There was no 24 hour ANYTHING.
Perhaps we could have made more than one Trip To Town, but I don't think Mom could face packing three children in for a half-hour car ride more than once a week. I remember her frustration, even on the way home, when she realized she forgot something. She learned to do without and to substitute. She learned to garden, can, pickle, and freeze. She adapted quite well, but her secret knowledge of how convenient life in the city could be, made it more of a burden than for the neighbors, who didn't know any different.
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| Aunt Mae and her sister, Evie |
In the meantime, Aunt Mae decided to come along on Gram's once a week trip to Pennsylvania to see Mom. Like any good General, she intended to seize the supply chain of provisions in the next state as well. However, she had no access to flyers to map out the bargains, and the two hour trip home meant no perishables, so it was a bit more manageable. Additionally, it was only one day per week, just like Mom's Trip To Town. I think it's now obvious why Mom needed to keep those two trips separate.
