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| The place for supplies |
Funny, we all think, how on a pre-snow day the grocery
stores always empty out of essential foods – but, to be in JoAnn Fabrics and
Crafts, as big and well-stocked as any grocery store, and to see the women there
in throngs, buying 12 yards of interlining; or 7 yards of interfacing; or one
yard each of 12 patterned fabrics; or enough black and white thread to last
till the end of time . . . that is funny.
One woman, her cart full of supplies, said, “Now I’m ready for the snow
day tomorrow – watch it not get here!”
She laughed, as did other women nearby who were most likely thinking the
same thing and similarly gathering supplies for the arrival of snow.
I had gone there to get one big red button and some cording
for a small project of my own. I have
only recently put my hand to sewing after a 30-year hiatus, and I find it
to be much like bread baking in the way it can jog one part of the brain in
order to open up the other part of the brain that often gets stuck in non-writing
mode. As I stitch, words fall into place,
order becomes apparent, and a pattern emerges!
Anyway . . .
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| Like in a candy store . . . |
I stood in line nearly 30 minutes for my $12 purchase. These are not the same faces I saw in the
grocery store earlier today, I thought.
No one here was complaining about the long lines or the lack of supplies on
the shelves or the understaffed store. These women were happy to have obtained their
goods for an anticipated play day.
The woman in front of me looked back at my few meager items
which I held in my left hand (other women had carts, real grocery carts,
full of sequins and glue and threads and bolts of fabrics and rolls of batting
and such) – she looked back at me and said, “Got a coo-pon?” She might have said, “Got Milk?” as on that
television ad – so firmly and surely did she say it to me.
I looked down at the one red button and three one-yard-length
cords I held, and said, “No.” I realized
I was the only woman in line without a grocery cart or booklet
full of coo-pons. She didn’t say anything, just proceeded to
scroll at her smart phone, then turned back, handed me a paper coo-pon for 40% off one item, and said, “I’ve got this one on my phone, so you can have it . . .” I was very
grateful, calculating I’d use it for the pricey $5 button I held, and that it would save me $2 or so. She inched forward in line, saying, “Ever’
little bit helps, right?”
In the parking lot, one woman loaded her car with a cart full of fabrics and supplies – all in her trunk. She looked up as I
squeezed by, and gave me some kind of “knowing smile” – it was a little sheepish
too, as though admitting the trick of putting bags in the trunk in order to hide
it from one's husband. I’m not sure if
that’s what the sheepish smile meant, but I smiled back in a knowing fashion and nodded to her, just
as I had gratefully accepted the coo-pon
from the other woman.
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| I needed one perfectly red button |
I put my button and cords in the car, and suddenly thought
that chocolate chip cookies would be fun to bake on a snowy day, and so I
walked up the sidewalk to a grocery store.
I passed by a liquor store on the way and saw throngs of men inside, standing in lines equally long as at the crafts store. I hovered nearby, pretending to read signs in
the window, all the while noting the men walking in with hands in their
pockets and heads to the ground, not browsing in the store but going directly
to the aisle of their intention – and men walking out, holding a black
plastic bag in each arm, heads still down.
There were no bonds or “knowing smiles” amongst them – and I wondered if
one of them might open the trunk of his car to find a cache of hidden craft
supplies . . .
