The baby has been sick for a couple of days so I’m behind on the grocery shopping. G came home tonight and we decided that he would run to Kroger for some sandwiches and essentials. I requested much-needed Diet Coke and an Italian sandwich. He wrote those in a list and added milk, fruit and something for breakfast. Vivi requested a treat, “something Halloween but not pumpkin flavor.” (That’s my girl!)
Here’s what he brought home an hour later:
12 pack of Diet Coke bottle of wine (for Mama, because the man is no fool) 2 bags of yogurt berry rice cakes 2 jars of peanut butter NutriGrain bars cornichons stuffed grape leaves Dalmatian fig preserves brie pepper crackers gallon of milk one Boar’s Head Authentic Italian hoagie 2 quarts of strawberries 1 pint of blackberries 8 green bananas 3 cans of Axe body spray 2 tubes of Old Spice deodorant razor blades dozen chocolate chip cookies dozen glow in the dark cupcakes with 100% unnatural ingredients TOTAL: $124.75 (For dinner, he and I had to split the sandwich and feed Vivi an old can of chicken noodle soup. But we did discover that she likes cornichons.)Hey, it’s his money–he can blow it on blackberries in October if he chooses to. He did a kind thing, bringing treats for all of us.
And the whole episode reminded me of the utter delight I felt as a kid when Daddy went to the grocery store. Back then, my dad worked six days a week as a country veterinarian. Sometimes on Saturday, he’d swing by O’Neal’s Grocery on the way home at lunch. He came in the yellow front door with a wooden case of RC Colas clinking against each other. A plump loaf of Sunbeam bread and a stack of fresh-sliced baloney (not bologna, BALONEY) to fry up for sandwiches with bright yellow mustard. Bags of salty potato chips and some Mayfield chocolate almond ice cream getting soft on the top from the 7 mile drive.
Best of all in my young eyes, he’d even bring a People magazine with Three’s Company or Mork and Mindy on the cover. Oh, bliss on a Saturday afternoon. A cold RC. A belly full of fried baloney sandwiches. Greasy potato chip fingertips rubbing the ink off the corner of shiny magazine pages as I read and read and read. We didn’t live on this kind of food and we didn’t live for this kind of food, but it sure did perk up a same old Saturday back in the day.
So I’ll be the one who goes to the grocery store and buys things in season and whole grains and fresh fresh fresh. G can be the one who brings home the glow in the dark cupcakes. That’s what daddies do.
My husband does the same thing. When my girls are at the store with me and I’m telling tbem (repeatedly) no to junk, they say “We should have brought Daddy!” Lol.
They learn fast!
Lordy I love fried bologna. My dad & I took a road trip in 2007, we detoured off our original plan because I had an interview in GA I wanted to make. So we missed out on I place in Ohio that claims the best fried bologna sandwiches in the US. About 10 days after the trip I was at his house and he had gotten deli bologna sliced thick for us to fry up and eat. It was perfection.
GAH. I think I know what crap I’m splurging on this weekend….
I grew up in Mississippi and we ate fried boloney at least once a week. We ate it for breakfast with fried eggs or on a sandwich for lunch. I haven’t eaten it in years because, well, now I know what goes into making it. But just thinking about it brings back memories of sitting around my grandmother’s kitchen table while she fixed us breakfast on her wood cook stove.
Yeah, I can only eat baloney about once a year!
Fried baloney must be universal! I don’t recall my Dad every grocery shopping but as we got older he did do his own Christmas shopping – which was always interesting and extra special!
Oh, wonderful memory! Our Daddy always gets us one gift just from him. Usually purchased on Christmas Eve.
I had that same trip down memory lane this past weekend when a friend brought RC colas, moon pies and pork rinds as a hostess gift!!! You may have mentioned it before when Daddy would occasionally stop by the day old bread store and come home with 3 bushels of fried pies and such!
Oh, that’s day old bread store is a whole nuther story!
I have finally found a place where I can get bread, real bread, white bread, plain white bread. Penaro’s. I order early Wednesday morning and pick it up on my way home from coffee with friends. Of course that means picking up baloney at Kroger, too. My favorite is baloney, butter (usu margarine) spread on both slices, mustard spread thinly on one slice and baloney in the middle. I taught that to one of Amy’s friends when she was little, and she says she gets hungry for that and that always makes her think of me. I can think of worse reasons to be remembered. We do the healthy (sorta) thing most of the time, a little heavy on the sweets, but once in awhile childhood comes aknockin’ and you have to let it in.
Yeah, I’m looking forward to the day-old bread story.
I better get to telling it then!
ps At our house daddy goes to the store and takes a list and coupons. (I think he’s quit the coupons except for an oil change or Arby’s French dip) When I started to work, he said what can I take over? We decided grocery shopping, paying bills and most of the cooking. It’s been great, because he’s a better shopper than I am, much better, and dare I say it, probably a better cook.
COUPONS??? What are those???
My husband will write a list of things we need and come home with a bunch of EXTRA stuff. Every. Time. I never know what we’re gonna get.
Lists don’t even matter. G thinks quantity is a good thing, so if the list says “bananas” he bring 75 green bananas that will all ripen on the same day sometime next week.
We have taken to doing family trips to the store with the baby (honestly, shopping at Earth Fare is fun & it’s one of our weekend activities– does that make us lame?)
My best daddy shopping story is from when our baby was just 1 day old.
We had gotten home from the hospital and there was no food in the house (people brought us meals, but not until the 2nd-3rd week– so no meals the first week). Hubby went to the store… and came back with a reasonable assortment of food as well as 2% milk, coconut milk, and almond milk… because he thought it would help my milk come in sooner!
It was so sweet/touching and a little silly at the same time! 🙂
Oh, that’s adorable! The afternoon we brought Carlos home, I sent G to the store to get some caffeine-free Diet Coke and he called me in a panic because all they had was cf Diet Pepsi. We both cried.
Most of my better DAD moments are with my Uncle Paul. I don’t know that he ever went to the store, but when he came home from work, he would sometimes give each of us a dollar (there were always nieces/nephews congregated at Uncle Paul & Grandma’s house), and we were allowed to shop for whatever we wanted. We spent it on “penny” candy – which wasn’t really a penny, but each of us could get a beer can bag full of yummies at the convenience store. It never occurred to us to pool our money and head to the grocery store – which was just as close by – and get more for our money. To this day my cousins and I still smile and laugh about it. THOSE are the memory makers when you’re being loved and feeling special.
I remember understanding the concept of inflation when bubble gum went from a penny to 2 cents! Your Uncle Paul’s dollars are still paying off every time your cousins and you share the memory.
Yes they are!!! In amazing ways!!!
My Daddy would go by Peek’s grocery for baloney thick cut with the red wrapping. And of course hoop cheese to go with it. We would take this and saltines to the Creek with us. Now, in school, there was this strange concoction of a fried baloney cup – it is odd, I don’t like baloney, but every so often, in cold weather, I get a hankering for it. You fry up a piece of baloney, put a scoop of mashed potatoes on top and cheddar cheese on top of that. Sounds disgusting, right? The saltiness of the baloney adds to the potatoes and the cheese makes it all gooey. Public School cafeteria, you know? Other than going with us on trips to Sams back in the day, though, I never saw my father grocery shop. Not one single time. He was raised by his grandmothers, so gender roles for him were set in stone.
I think we should put the fried baloney cup recipe on the Baddest Mother Ever Pinterest page!
Pingback: Daddy Did My Hair | Baddest Mother Ever