I’m going to tell you a story. The reason for this story is two-fold. First, I haven’t talked to you about the ‘70s lately, and second, my story is integral to the point of the article. When I was a kid, there was the “neighborhood grocery store.” Almost every neighborhood, town, village, hamlet, or settlement had a grocery store. These stores were not like the Wegman’s of today. These stores were always on your route home from work, school, tavern, etc. They were small but had everything one needed. The stores had names like Red & White, Big M, Ballway’s, Merluzzi’s, Model Market, Super-Duper, Victory, A & P, I.G.A…you get the gist. My mother or father would send my nine-year-old self to the store with forty-five cents and a note saying something like: “please sell Maureen one pack of Camels. Sincerely, Mr. D.” Mind you, forty-five cents bought not only a pack of cigarettes but also a chocolate milk and a Slim-Jim.

Now it’s a major thing to “stop at the store.” And the stores are huge. I’ve no doubt stated before I could spend days at the Dewitt Wegman’s and not even come close to seeing everything. It’s like Disney in there. There was once a Wegman’s on Pond Street; it was the size of the Den. This is where I drive my point home: Trader Joes is the answer to the delightfulness of the by-gone neighborhood grocery store. It’s not too big, it’s not too small and it’s got everything you need. AND it’s all reasonably priced. The other day I winged over there from campus and I got three boxes of cereal, a tub of thumb-print cookies, soy yogurt, almond milk and a box of oyster crackers for twelve bucks.  I like that Trader Joes puts everything you buy in paper bags with handles; none of this plastic nonsense.

One thing I do want to cover is this: soy yogurt. Now, my husband is a farmer and soybeans are his main crop so I try to get behind anything soy. Not this stuff. If you can tolerate dairy, stick with what you know. If you cannot, try to find some other sweet treat to take your mind off things because this goop ain’t gonna do it for ya. But this isn’t Trader Joe’s fault; it’s impossible to recreate dairy goodness when you have no dairy ingredients to work with. I commend them for trying to bring yogurt-like products to the non-dairy imbibers.  Trader Joes is well lit, the staff is friendly and helpful, and the prices are right. It’s a fun place to indulge if you are organic and/or vegan-minded too. So, for the remainder of the semester I promise I won’t mention the 70’s or any decade preceding it.