Big Star
The closest grocery store to my house is the Big Star. I went Saturday to get some AAA batteries for the remote control, and to stock up on comestibles & such. Outside, there’s a guy who always asks for money. I never give him any, but it doesn’t seem to put him off. He’s always out there. I noticed that he has a cell phone. I understand that if he is homeless he may not have a home phone, but if he can afford a cell phone, why can’t he afford food? It wasn’t even a cheap phone. It was the kind with a TV screen that’s the size of a saltine.
Across the street is a van draped with colorful blankets & a folding table piled high with imitation Nike shoes. A while back I saw a guy over there sitting on the tailgate of his truck next to some coolers and a sign that said simply “COON”.
Inside the Big Star is a somewhat skewed selection of food. For example you can buy a gallon of lard in a cardboard box, but they don’t carry avocados. You can buy three pounds of fresh chicken feet (they don’t even cut the toenails off), but you’ll never find a cut of beef fancier than round steak. There is souse and chitterlings galore, but a red bell pepper? Nope.
They have cool-aid already mixed in a gallon jug. I tried to do the math on this. Packet of Kool-Ade .29, Sugar 1.89/5lb. I figure about .75 a gallon, but a gallon of pre-mixed goes for 1.79 (heaven forbid one should have to “stir”). A woman walked by with a shopping cart full of 6 gallon containers of the colorful fluid. It was quite festive.
In line at the check-out there were four ladies in front of me, including the lady with the large load of cool-aid. Each of them had her bright yellow EBT card out. I felt oddly out of place purchasing my food with “money”.
Damn.
I forgot the batteries.
posted by Bert Ford @ 12:22 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Ah, you're just jealous because your cell is the size of a payphone. . . booth
:)
A long time ago, we had a store here called "Dugal's Big Star." Is this a chain, like Kroger or Smitty's?
Don't know anybody who eats coon,but
my husband used to work in St. Louis with some guys who said they wouldn't buy a possum unless it still had the feet on. Seems that SOME people skin cats and sell them as possums.
Back in the day when they still had food stamps around here, people would wait outside convenience stores, give a kid a "20" to buy a pack of gum, then take the change they got in real money and buy cigarettes. I worked at a store that got its food stamp privileges revoked because the manager took food stamps for some kid's cough medicine. She said it wasn't fair, they could buy burritos and Coke, but not medicine for the kids.
Haven't seen the chicken feet, but my grandpa always had a tasty jar of pickled pig's feet in his fridge.
Hillbilly Mom,
I assume that "Big Star" is a chain. There's a country song that goes "cashed my check at the local Big Star....."
My dad used to work at Hercules, where they processed pine products. A guy came by the house one day asking for a bucket of pine rosin. My dad got it for him.
He used it for skinning 'opposums. Apparently 'opposums have a fat layer just under their skins like people & pigs do. This guy dipped a 'opposum in hot rosin & hung it up for a little while then he cut it around it's tail & peeled it like a banana. It was crazy.
He asked my mom, "If you was gone cook a 'posum would ya use white vinegar or dark vinegar."
I don't remember which was best.
But, honestly, I've never eaten a n 'opposum. Who'd buy one? You can get cats for free all day long.
Look in my archives. I have a good recipe for Kitty Cat Casserole a while back.
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