Grocery Shopping....

March 13, 2020, was a Friday – Friday the thirteenth. We had a study group at church on hymnody. Mama and I went and after it was over, I needed a few things at the grocery store. I don’t remember what anymore, but I didn’t want to go all the way to my usual store, so we went to the one near church, an IGA. I got want I needed – whatever it was – and we went home. And that was the last time I shopped in a grocery store. I have not gone into a grocery store to buy food in two years. 

Everything came to a grinding halt that weekend. We still had in-person worship but we cancelled our church luncheon for March 15. (A family size pan of lasagna was in my freezer for a long time.) ven on the 13th, I had posted signs on the doors for folks to keep their distance from each other. Soon after, we were no longer worshipping in person, and that would go on for a very long time. 

In these past two years, I have mastered the art of on-line grocery shopping. I make my lists, send them in, and drive up for curb-side. It is convenient (for me), and allows me to shop around from home. I’ve gotten to know the folks who pick my groceries. And they are good! I’ve made a few mistakes – ending up once with four pounds of radishes and a bag of frozen French fries so big it lasted for six months. But what a blessing for me. I have not had to go into the store; I have not worried about getting sick there; I have been able to pay for and pick up our food. 

I give thanks regularly for those who make this possible – the ones who shop my orders and bring them to my car; the stores that pivoted overnight to do this; the truck drivers delivering toilet paper and spinach. And I wonder if I will ever go back to a weekly trip to the grocery store, with my written list in hand. I wonder if I will ever just run in for one or two things. I wonder if things will ever be the way they were “before.”