THINGS I MISS MOST

In my 39 years on this Earth, life seems to have changed so much that I fear we are losing some wonderful experiences all in the name of progress!

Oh the smells!

For instance: I can’t seem to find any bakeries anymore. You remember them? They sold buns on a Sunday morning, fresh pies and rolls, great bread and the smell that greeted you when you entered the shop overwhelmed. Then these wonderful goods were put into a white box and string tied with a red and white string, wrapped round and round and then knotted, or white sanitary bags.

I miss the cool fall days and walking along a city street, and coming upon a fruit and vegetable store. The fruit set up in neat rows and ready to squeeze, the smell particular to the venue. The owner would take the items and throw them on a scale and dump it into a brown paper bag and you paid then off you’d go.

Fresh daily!

When I was a kid, I would go along the street in Brooklyn and stop in front of the shoemaker shop. He had a black cat decal that was in his front store window, I loved the picture and would peek into the shop and watch him work or take on a customer. I usually would go in with a brown bag and my worn out shoes and ask for new leather soles and heels. He would eye them like a prize relic and say: Tuesday. Once again, the smell was particular to the shop and he was usually an older man, from the “other side”.  His tools of the trade fascinating me and my wondering how he learned to use them.

The butcher shop was special too, the saw dust on the floor, butcher block tables with cut marks and knives set between the blocks and the heavy scales and hanging salami, the cold cuts ready for your request, the chops all neatly lined up in the refrigerated case, like soldiers at attention, the different dangling sausages, all commanded your attention. I loved the way they wrapped the meat in that reddish brown wrapping, making these bundles then dropping them in a brown bag for your convenience.

Their greeting was genuine!

Then of course was the small grocery store, something like the convenience stores we experience today, only they were more personal, more friendly and indeed had its own culture. There was the stick with the claw at the end with its pincer grasp for cans and items high on the shelf. The bread and pickles, the fresh donuts and loaves of bread, and as you picked your items, there were no carts or baskets in those days, you placed everything on the counter and the owner would take a brown paper bag, and in crayon write the price down of each item in a row, then total it up, all by hand with his mind, no scanning or machines!

Finally I miss the fish monger, who would come by the neighborhood about mid to late afternoon, announcing his presence, particularly on a Friday, his horse plop, plop, plopping down the street, leaving muffins as he went, the fisherman calling out: “Hey seafood for sale, get your fresh seafood!”

Sadly, that is all gone, never more will one be able to experience those little pleasures of life, each in its own way special and memorable, gone to the way of large parking lots with inattentive drivers and metal carriages that seem to want to go in their own direction, sometimes into someone or someone’s car door. The massive building holding rows of rotted vegetables and the bakeries having no character in the flavors in their sterile appearance and uninterested workers who seem to never be around if you need something. The fish is usually suspect since you don’t know how fresh it is, and neither do the managers, and the meat, well let’s say that having meat in plastics trays with little kotex napkins under them makes you wonder just what is on the other side of the meat.

http://www.ahrcsuffolk.org/

http://www.ebeanstalk.com/?store=42

http://www.mountaintoptoys.com/

Address: 1231 Taft Hwy, Signal Mountain, TN 37377

Phone:(423) 886-6943

Hours: Open today · 10:00 am – 6:00 pm

DO YOU WATCH THE BIG BANG THEORY?

You should!