Rules Of The Road

Six of the first eight years of my marriage was spent attached to the US NAVY. While Lee was learning to be a Doctor at Portsmouth Naval Hospital, I was learning to be a Navy wife. There are all kinds of things about being the spouse of a military personnel. First, you are your spouses social security number. I know his as well, if not better than I know my own. Don't ware open toed shoes in the presence of a commanding officers wife. (That's a story for another time.) Learn the "rules of the road" at the commissary. Now, for those who don't know, that is a military grocery store and there are rules. The military is structured, and so is the commissary. There is one door in and one door out and they usually aren't next to each other. You will start your shopping experience in the fresh produce and you will end your shopping experience in the dog food. I must admit I don't miss that shopping experience but two things have stuck with me. This was the mid 80's and the Navy was big on reusable bags. That's right, before every store had bags for sale with their logos on them, I had canvas bags that said Save the Earth the US NAVY. When I came back home in 1992, I took my bags to Kroger and the bagger put them in a plastic bag for me. They had no idea what to do with bags brought from home. The other thing, and one I wish Kroger would do, is arrows on the floor. That's right, direction arrows. The isles were wide with arrows going one way. The next isle would be the other direction. If you were to dare go the wrong way down an isle, there would be an announcement over the loud speaker that the lady in isle 3 is going the wrong way, turn around immediately. Not that it took long for some other shopper to remind you of the rules of the road. Just try turning in going the wrong way and people would pounce on you. Not just a dirty look, you were TOLD! There also was none of this park and stand. You "pulled over" to the right, leaving passing room for the other carts.  Keep this in mind this week as we shop for our Thanksgiving feast. If everyone were to go in the same direction we would smoothly move down the isles. There would be no cart sitting while the shopper was two isles over looking for yams. I guess it also helped at the commissary that there were armed men walking around, but that might be overkill. Take care and enjoy your holiday shopping!