I had a major decision to make. Do I do self-checkout
or go to the cashier with my groceries. I was calculating which would be faster
since I had quite a few items including produce which I hate looking up on the
screen. I opted for the cashier thinking it would be faster since there was no
line. It may or may not have been faster, but it certainly was more
entertaining. The cashier was a young college age man who I had not seen at
this store before. He was able to deftly handle the fish, meat, butter, potato
chips and all those items that have a UPC Barcode.
It is when we got to the produce that things got
interesting. He slowed down studying every item. He got to the parsnip and had
apparently never seen one of these before. I knew what was coming. He looked at
me and asked “What is this?” I said “A parsnip.” I wasn’t surprised,
many a cashier is stymied by the not so common vegetables. They want oranges,
apples, green beans (Preferably in a microwave bag.) and broccoli. Yet the next
one surprised me. He held up my bunch of radishes and asked again “What is
this?” I tried to hide my shock and dismay but calmly said “radishes”.
The last item was a cucumber. He looked at it. Somewhere in the deep recesses
of his brain he had seen one of these before. He was straining to remember. He
looks at me and tentatively says “This is a cucumber, right?” I smile and say “yes”.
I mean I get this often. Many a young person has no
idea what certain vegetables are. I wonder what they ate their whole life to
never have come upon fresh produce. Do people not cook at home anymore?
I remember years ago I was working with a woman who
hated to cook and would serve her son mashed potatoes that came from a box. Yet
one day her son who was in first grade looked at her and asked “Mom can you
make mashed potatoes from real potatoes?” She was ashamed and scared! She
would have rather he asked “Where do babies come from?” I always wondered what happened to that young
man. I hope that he broke the noncooking cycle in his family or a generation of
descendants will be raised on boxed mashed potatoes. A sad thought. Tears come
to my eyes just thinking about it.
The next day I am in the produce section of a
different grocery store. I really don’t like buying produce at this store
because it is notoriously bad. Yet I only needed two things that are common one
being a green pepper. When an older
gentleman (He looked old to me but the scary part is he was about my age.) asks
me “Do you know what a turnip is?”
They are right in front of him but there is no sign. I
point to them. He asks “Which is a good one? Which would you buy?” I
look them over. The colors are fading and all of them are brown. I picked up a
couple and they are squishy. To his dismay I say “None of them. This store
is known for its bad produce.”
He goes “My wife sent me out to get a root
vegetable for a stew.” He was shaken. I said “Tell her some guy told you
not to buy them. Trust me.” Apparently, she suggested a few other items and
I showed him the rutabagas and of course the parsnips. While neither looked
great they were in better shape than those turnips. I mean someone should have
lost their job for leaving those turnips out.
He brings over a yucca and asks me what it is but
before I could answer he turns it around and there is a sticker that says
“yucca”. “Oh. Will this work?” I said “I don’t know what she is
making but it probably wouldn’t. I would stick with the parsnips or the
rutabaga.”
I felt like saying “How did you make it this long
in life? Being so helpless around food.” I thought about him and before I
walked away I was going to make a career suggestion to him. I think he has the
making of a good cashier. You will be happy to know that I kept all my wise guy
thoughts to myself.
Now I no longer worry about the gastronomical future
of our country. It is the present that is the problem.
