Socializing

I haven't been going to the grocery as often lately and I've missed out on a lot of my socializing. The trip to Krogers quite often is the highlight of my social life. Almost always I have encounters with friends, neighbors, parents of children I've taught and various other people that I know. Occasionally, I interact with people I don't know.
You'd be surprised at how many words of wisdom, words of derision,words of sympathy and words of advise are dealt out in the produce aisle, prescription counter, and other areas of the food mecca.
Profound statements and useless information, medical advise, marital advise, parenting advice are all handed out with sublime equanimity.
I have frequent encounters with Rita who enjoys passing on all of the bad news that she has heard lately about mutual friends and neighbors. "Mary, you remember her,broke her leg a few days before her wedding and had to go down the aisle in a wheel chair. One of her neighbor, Jim, backed his car out of the garage and ran over his wife's walker. Fortunately, she wasn't using it at the time; however she 's not getting around too well lately.
Joe keeps me updated on his PSA test results and his golf scores. He gets pretty fired up about the latest goings on in Washington and bemoans the fact that there are so many ill informed people in this country that vote these "baboons" into office.
Danny, that I taught for a few years is now grown up, married and has two boys. Do I think they should be tested for learning differences? I advised him to give it serious thought. They surely are cute boys.
Inga keeps me up to date on what her tall dark handsome son is doing and how many jobs he has had. She is thinking of taking the test to see if she can become a citizen of the U.S. She has lived here for thirty or forty years and has never been able to vote!
Kitty moved here from the North and has had a hard time adjusting to the accents of some of her new friends. She called to congratulate Sue on the birth of her new baby and when told that the baby is "blond" she made a fuss about that and remarked about how cute blond babies are. She teared up when she told me that she had misunderstood. Actually the baby is blind.
Dorothy is ninety and she is shopping for potatoes because she is bringing potato salad to a party she is attending. "Can you believe the price of potatoes?" Anyway, the party giver is even older than Dorothy and when Dorothy called her to check and see if anyone else was bringing potato salad her friend said, "Am I having a party tonight?" Dorothy called the daughter of the friend and confirmed that the party was in fact going to happen, her friend just forgot that she had sent out
invitations.
Jack has a terrible time with his wife. She is unable to do anything around the house. She can't cook any more, nor do house work and he has to do everything! The only respite he gets is going to the grocery and to church on Sunday. He would like to visit Doc but he would not be able to leave her unattended for that long. They had no children, he had one brother but he died and her only sister died so they are completely and totally alone. I can remember when we were all younger and they were free to go where they wanted, Bahamas, California, etc. etc. and had plenty of money to do all those things. They had no tuition bills, pediatrician bills, large grocery bills,they seemed so foot loose and fancy free. Now, they have no sons or daughters that care for them, no grandkids or great grandkids, no neices or nephews or anyone that really cares for them. What a lonesome life. I always walk away from him thanking God for our blessings.
Advise is asked for and given on things like how do you know if a chicken is fresh, do you think this melon is ripe enough, what's that stuff called, (rhubarb) what do you do with it? How do you cook asperagus? Is this cabbage or lettuce? What is mush? How do you cook it? Is it good? Why did you open all the egg cartons before you chose one? Teachable moments happen on a regular basis.
Happy shopping most of the time except for Senior Citizen Day! That's a whole new ballgame!