My Favorite Things

        It began just a few years ago. I would be in Publix, and at the checkout line I would get a weird look from the cashier. Since I was beginning to recognize that particular weird look, I would figuratively smack myself on the forehead and say to myself, “It’s Wednesday! You aren’t supposed to go to Publix on Wednesdays!”

        Wednesday is the day of the week seniors get a 5% discount. From my mid-fifties on, when I checked-out on Wednesdays, the cashiers were torn – should they ask if I was eligible for the discount and risk my ire at the suggestion I was old enough for a senior discount when I was not? Or should they keep quiet and risk my ire if I were to miss out on the saving of a few dollars? One time a cashier, having the courage to ask, told me that the discount was for people over 60. From then on, whenever I saw that look in their eyes that said, “should I ask or shouldn’t I?” I would volunteer that I was still too young for the discount. But it was easier for all involved if I just avoided Publix altogether on Wednesdays.

        For the last couple of years before I turned sixty, I realized the look in the cashiers’ eyes had gone away. And then I realized they were giving me the discount without even asking if I was eligible! That meant that I looked obviously over sixty – why inquire? So sad! And I tried to stay away on Wednesdays so as to not cheat Publix out of a few dollars just because a cashier overestimated my age. But then if I was there on a Wednesday and someone thought I was older than I really was, well then too bad, saving a few dollars helped to ease the insult.

        Now that I am sixty plus, I should make a point of only going to Publix on Wednesdays – however, and this is where Publix takes advantage of us old fogies, we tend to forget.

        Today is the day before Thanksgiving, a Wednesday. And I needed some ingredients for the cornbread stuffing Mike and I decided we would take for the buffet at friends’ tomorrow. Pulling into the parking lot at Publix, I saw lots and lots of cars. Oh my gosh, the day before a holiday – it was going to be a zoo in there. And oh gosh, it is senior discount day – a zoo and old people! Sigh.

        But the store was not as crowded as the parking lot seemed to indicate. In the produce section, a man about my age was talking to one of the Publix employees – probably a manager, not a young person. The man had a question about the availability of a certain kind of vegetable – rutabaga or something. They were engaging each other – the manager did not look rushed but instead was going out of his way to help the customer, mainly with conversation that they both seemed to care about. Finally, the manager asked what all the customer and his family would be having for Thanksgiving, and the man smiled and said their Thanksgiving was going to be on Friday when the whole family will be able to get together, and he described the planned menu. Again, the manager did not look rushed or appear to be asking out of platitudinous politeness. It was a scene of two strangers enjoying the holiday spirit together by the potatoes.

        It filled me with even more of the holiday spirit than I already had, and it reminded me of why I like Thanksgiving so much.

        Elsewhere in the store, I saw another incident of a woman customer engaging a female manager in a similar type of conversation. I wondered if Publix went out of its way to encourage their people to reach out in this manner on this day, or if the two employees were just naturally that way, or perhaps it was just the good vibes in the store on this particular day at that particular time – the kind of vibes that make you wish we could keep that spirit with us and exuding from us all year long.

        After receiving my senior discount and rolling the cart out, I made a mental note to go to Steak and Shake on Friday. I love to go there at lunchtime during the holidays to see families with out- of-town company gathered for an inexpensive meal out together. It is never like the family reunion movies you see with all the drama and verbal release of decades’ worth of grievances – instead there are cute kids excited and bouncy, and adults laughing and everyone with lots of smiles. Watching them, staring more than I should I suppose, is my holiday fix.

        We would go to Steak and Shake with Mom and my grandmother – show them off – our family with us for the holidays. Good times.

        Nowadays we also go to Biba’s – the Italian restaurant next to Publix. The apostrophe in the Biba’s sign is a slice of pizza. We know most of the waitstaff and Fred the owner and Ben the bartender. We share our kids and sons-in-law and the grandchildren with them, and at extra special times – we show off our siblings, friends, co-workers, and other storytellers.

        Listening and laughing – and eating – at our tables, or watching and absorbing the reunions, celebrations, joys at the other tables and barstools – are some of my favorite things.

        And I am thankful to Publix on this Wednesday for being the catalyst for the memories and reminders as this holiday season gets underway.

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