Chapter 4

Chapter 4
Different Times


Cindy drove the squeaky wheeled grocery cart down the canned food isle of the grocery store. She perused each label to find just the one she wanted. She thought about Nate and the local market back then and how things had changed. There was rarely any customer service these days. It was all upon the customer. Cindy sighed as she seemed to be missing what she needed. She tried to ask one of the employees at the end of the hall where the canned peaches were, but before she could even get her buggy halfway down the isle the young girl scooted around to the next isle, head down all the way. Little Andy was singing a song about how great it was shopping with Grandma, what a big boy he was, and what a doody-face Audrey was. He was perfectly content swinging his chubby little legs back and forth as he sat on the ‘baby’ seat of the grocery cart. His shocking red hair had a large cowlick at the back of it which Cindy had desperately tried to lay down, but in the end let it do as it pleased. Audrey was helping her Grandmother look for the canned peaches and doing her best to ignore Andy’s loud and purposeful singing.
“Grandma, I found them,” Audrey exclaimed and proceeded to take four cans full of wedged peaches in a light syrup off the shelf. “Perfect dear, just put them in the grocery cart. Well, I think we have gotten pretty much everything we need for a perfect holiday meal. We will send your Father out the day before to get some last minute items.”

“Sounds great Grandma,” Audrey responded as she placed the last can of peaches in the full shopping cart. Andy had become very quiet and was looking at his sister quizzically as she finished her task. Audrey kept thinking to herself, “don’t look at him, whatever you do don’t look at him, it is just better to ignore him Audrey, after all he is only a little kid.” No matter how she willed herself not to look it was hopeless. Andy was counting on the fact that she would look, and when she did he proceeded to open his mouth and sing, “Myyyyyy sister is aaaaa biiiig doooody-faace…” He grinned at this and waited for the reaction. Audrey could have called him a big baby right then and there, but she decided it better to keep peace. She had thought about the story Grandma had been telling all day long and wanted to hear the rest of it when they got back. She kept wondering if today’s shopping adventure was anything like shopping back then. Audrey was 12 years old and growing into a fine young woman. The story was more special to her this year than it had ever been before and she relished the re-telling of it. No, she would hold her tongue and keep peace for the sake of that alone. It sure wasn’t easy being the big sister to a three-year-old brother.

Andy was asleep before they left the parking lot of the busy Grocery Store. His snores were a welcomed peace to Audrey and she proceeded to ask her question, “Grandma is shopping for groceries today anything like it was in your day?” Cindy looked at her beautiful granddaughter who daily reminded her of herself at that age and scrunched her thinking cap on. Audrey was so thoughtful in everyway, she really carried things through, didn’t miss a beat, wanted to know everything about everything, and had a huge heart for others. Cindy loved this about her Granddaughter and so she always thought an extra long time before answering her right off.

“Well Audrey, in some ways it is the same, but in many ways it isn’t. You can still get pretty much everything you could back then and tones more on top of that, but there was something to be said about someone caring about the product you got. A lot of the things sold in the local market back then were from local farmers and neighbors; today it is all manufactured by strangers. There is definitely a personal touch that is missing from most businesses today, including the grocery store.”

That seemed to satisfy Audrey and she snuggled up in the front seat and gazed out the window at the fast moving landscape, her mind was deep in thought and she secretly wished she could have lived back in Grandma’s day to know what it was really like.
Cindy pulled the car into the drive, placed it in park, and then put the emergency break on. Audrey hopped out the front door, and began to pull two plastic bags full of groceries from the back seat. Nearly dragging them to the ground, she took them to the back door which entered into the kitchen and came back for some more. Cindy lifted Andy, which was like lifting a sack of potatoes when he slept, and flung him over her shoulder. Still snoring loudly he had no idea that he was even being moved. She rummaged through her purse to find the house key, while securely holding onto her grandson with one arm, she propped the screen door open with her right side and squeezed the stubborn key in the rusty lock, a shake and shove and the squeaky door gave way to a blast of warmth against the cold afternoon air. Audrey helped her Grandmother put away the groceries while Andy finished his nap on the living room couch. It took them no time to get those special items tucked away for Christmas dinner. Cindy decided that vegetable soup, bread sticks, and ice cream would be their meal of choice this evening.
The meal proved to hit the spot and after the supper dishes were put away and dirty faces washed Audrey and Andy plopped down on the couch and snuggled up next to Cindy for the continuing of the special Christmas story.