Gordon will never take me back to Walmart!

We just got back from Super Walmart in Grenada (Saturday late afternoon), and  we have divided the supplies among the big house (for Mama and Unc), the studio (for us), supplies for the van (since we spend so much time in the van) and the other vehicles and Grandma's house (our future home).

I had a two page, single spaced, double column list of needed supplies. Really. No kidding.

Gordon was in shock when we left the store. The bill was more than a van payment. No exaggeration! We try to pay off our vehicles in three years, so that will give you an idea of the depth of Gordon's state of shock!

I have not told him that I still did not find everything we needed and that we need to go to the Starkville Super Walmart tomorrow afternoon or the first of next week.

This is going to sound very pathetic, but I had FUN in Walmart this afternoon.  I don't get to go shopping very often. Gordon is the primary Procurement Officer for the farm and family.

Walmart had put out lots of YELLOW plastic stuff for summer! I found yellow coat hangers, new yellow water bowls for the doggies, a little yellow pitcher to hold a Penny portion of peach tea, a great yellow multi-section plastic file folder (definitely need more of them).

We got a couple of those really big plastic storage trunks, and Mackie is at this moment trying to peek inside to see if there are any more new squeaky toys. There are only a couple of plastic sacks in the blue plastic trunk...no toys, but I'm going to let the container sit where it is for a bit, just to see if Mackie will hop in.

The plastic squeaky pizza slice lasted all of ten minutes. No kidding. Mackie stole it from Elvis and chewed right through that toy.  The plastic squeaky hamburger seems to be lasting a bit longer.  We were trying to get something that Elvis could keep as his very own.

Recently, Elvis  found an old squeaky four inch soccer ball that had survived six to eight English Shepherd puppies since 1992.  Elvis was SO proud of that little soccer ball, and he walked around, head high and tail high, taunting Mackie for a day or two before Mackie stole it back and has not let Elvis play with it since. All of the black soccer ball markings have been chewed off, but the little ball still squeaks faithfully!  I wish I could find some more of those little Westie-proof balls!

So, I can finally share my Walmart strategy with you now...because Gordon figured it out on this trip! hummmph!

In the first years of our marriage, I would make two lists, one for him and one for me. Gordon would race through his list, overlooking half of it, buying the smallest quantities of the items he did happen to find. 

So two lists did not work, because I had to go back and exchange a small bottle for the larger economy size and hopefully find a generic version.  I adore generic brands where possible, and Gordon does not think a generic pain killer, for example, will work as well as a more expensive brand name.  Men defy definition sometimes, don't they?!  *sigh*

Since the two list method did not work, I have evolved into just one list that I....and only I....handle and see. 

We set out with two shopping carts, and I send him off for two or three items that he can find in the same area of the store. 

If he looks at me with a blank expression, I write out a short list of the two or three items, complete with visual aids like the size of the container, the color of the container, any words that are important.

"Now, Honey, we need the largest bottles of extra strength extended release Tylenol...but the generic version that just says acetaminophen...and we need two bottles".

I try to smother the short, verbal Go Find lists with plenty of Honey's and Sweetie's and Please and Thank You and other forms of praise.

The nearest Walmart in Winona (ten miles away) does not carry many generic versions and even fewer large, economic bottles.

I suspect this strategy makes perfect sense to any woman you know, but Gordon has only been helping shop for Mama and Unc for 4.5 years, so some of the standard purchases are taking longer to "soak in" his brain.  (Remember that he is still learning what a fresh perm smells like.)

Don't worry, Gordon knows I am teasing him with this in an Erma Bombeck kinda way. He even laughed at a few places when he read this post. I'm making some much needed edits and tweaks to this post this afternoon. I was a bit too tired to write coherently last night.

In addition to Gordon's affected shock when we make stocking up trips to Walmart or Sams or other large quantity stores, we have an ongoing thing about toilet paper (hereafter abbreviated as TP....I'm feeling tired and too lazy to type out those two words every time!

Gordon, the bachelor for 36 years, does not see the need to buy TP until he is down to the last piece of TP on the last roll. I start having TP panics if we get down below five rolls. We go through a lot of TP here on the farm. (No obvious jokes, please!)

So sweet Gordon no longer winces in pain when I put one or two packages of 24 double rolls of TP in the cart.

But back to my strategy. While Gordon is off searching earnestly for his two or three assigned items, I can head to the dog toys or the magazines or the yellow plastic-ware...you know, fun stuff!

Well today, Gordon started noticing that my cart was filling up in sizable increments every time he left on one of his search missions, so after the fourth special assignment, he refused to leave me alone. 

At that point, he spun an admirable web of reasons he needed to stay and help me with my list. My hubby learns fast when he wants to...but I knew right away that he had figured out my shopping tactics.

That's ok, I'm a resourceful Southern woman. Devising new shopping strategies is not even a real challenge for us women, is it, ladies?

On one of my solo forays into the normally off limit isles in Walmart (dog toys...all the aforementioned areas), I saw a woman with a little Yorkie in an over-the-shoulder bag. Well, of course, I had to stop and ask her if she had any problems bringing her little dog into stores, among other questions....and pet the sweet little thing after asking permission.

The lady told the little dog to "lie down and hide", and the precious little fur ball did just what she said.  ADORABLE! When not hiding, he had his priceless little face peeking out under her arm, just taking in all the sites and smells! 

I could kick myself for not grabbing my PDA phone and taking a picture. I just don't immediately remember there is a camera in that thing.

Oh, how I wish our Westies were small enough to do that!  I am a much, much happier person when one or more of our dogs is near.

I'll try to snap some pictures of the little hair thingies I bought today for the girl dogs. The hamburger is no longer squeaking, and Elvis is now up on the bed...so I think Special Forces Mackie has chewed through the second toy of the afternoon.

Miracle of miracles, there is no basketball game that Gordon MUST watch tonight. Gasp! I am as shocked as Gordon at the Walmart check-out lane a few hours ago.

We are about to watch a movie TOGETHER! Both of us snuggled, watching the same movie at the same time with four little white fur balls snuggled around. Pure Heaven by my definition.

Untraceable is the movie. Hmmnn, I might pick up some shopping strategies from this movie!

I'm sure you get the correlation between shopping in 2008 vs. the disappearing stores of the past in these pictures. Yep, I have a thing about old country stores, abandoned or active. These are just a very few of the photos Gordon and I have collected in our travels.

If you know a name for any of these stores or the names of the owners or the years the stores served the public, please let me know.

Photo 1: Junior High Grocery, just off of Greensboro Street Historic District, Starkville, Oktibbeha County, Mississippi

Photo 2: Unknown Country Store on outskirts of Magee, Simpson County, Mississippi

Photo 3: Kellis Store on 387 North of Meridian, Kemper County, Mississippi

Photo 4: M.C.Billingsley Wholesale Grocery, corner of Front Street and Carrollton Avenue, Winona, Montgomery County, Mississippi. I think this is the same Billingsley family that owned and operated a Piggly Wiggly Grocery Store in Winona until 2007.

Photo 5: Unknown name, Front Street, Winona, Montgomery County, Mississippi

Photo 6: Bowie's Grocery Store (on the corner?) and Rosamond & Ellis Drugs (down the row of old empty stores? West, Holmes County, Mississippi.

Photo 7: Unknown name, corner Homochitto Street and Dunleith Street, Natchez, Adams County, MS

Photo 8: Mendenhall Grocery and Grain, since 1928, Mendenhall, Simpson County, Mississippi. I would love to know the names of the families that have owned and operated this delightful little store. Bravo to them for keeping it open, evolving to hold on in the tectonic changes in the marketplace.

There are a couple more country stores that I posted before here and here.  You can be sure I will be sharing many more of the stores of the past in the months ahead, as I have time to edit and research pictures we have taken.

Comments

[Honey]

Thought the purple ground cover was verbena...looked as if it was....love the old fashioned grandmother's garden plant. That is one lovely yard. Although Ed Martin, Retired landscape teacher from MSU always told me "they are gardens, not yards" and he is from the south.

[Robin]

OH how funny! I've only been married now 4 short years, and my honey is still learning to laugh. Everything is very serious to him. I so understand the one list, and guarding very carefully. LOL As always I enjoy reading your blogs. Thanks again, hugs and smiles Robin

[rlbates]

Love the pictures, and the story! Good to hear from you.