The circle of life

Yesterday I experiences a big milestone in my life. I helped out some college kids at the grocery store. Now, you might not understand the enormity of that if you haven't been in college recently (or are just out of your parents house and on your own) and had to go grocery shopping when you realize you don't know what you are doing. Suddenly, I would find myself frozen in fear with question like "Where do you find won-ton wrappers?" or "Where are the green onions, these things called "scallions" look like green onions, but are they the same?" What are you going to do? Most often, I'd try to call my mom but sometimes she didn't pick up. And you can't ask any of the teenage boys that work there, they have no idea.

So for a moment, you think you are going to have to go home and look up scallions on Wikipedia but then you spot her... a woman, preferable a mom whose children are not screaming at the time or knocking people over with a grocery cart, and one whose cart contains something other than kraft macaroni and cheese or frozen pizza. But once you pick out that lady (sorry guys, I don't think I've ever stopped a guy - unless I need something from the top shelf), you look confused and politely ask her your question. And she, very nicely and reassuringly provides an answer like "Wonton wrappers are found with the bagged lettuce" (because that makes sense?) or "Yes, scallions are the same as green onions."

So that is the type of situation that occurs quite frequently your freshman year and less and less as time goes on. And soon you find yourself boldly grocery shopping on your own like a real adult when you see two poor souls trying to pick out canned pumpkin. You see them watch you as you go right to the pumpkin, get what you need, then quickly grab two cans of evaporated milk before you even have to look at your list again. They look at each other, then back at you..."Uhm...so...do you know how much milk we need?"

"Well", I reply, "you have four cans of pumpkin, so if you want to make that all into pies, you'll need eight cans of evaporated milk."

"eight cans of milk, that is like $7 on milk, I didn't budget that much money for pies"

"But," I say, noticing they only have four pie crusts, "each can of pumpkin makes two pies."

"Oh, so we only need two cans of pumpkin...and four cans of milk?"

"For four pies, yep"

As I walk away, just as I'm tempted to go back and tell them, "And please don't make your pumpkin pies in graham cracker crusts, it just isn't right" when I hear the one say "I'm glad she knew what she was doing, now where are the spices?"

No, some things you have to learn the hard way. But they will make it and some day, someone will stop them and say "Ma'am...could I ask you a question?"