Shopping at Sears in the 1970s

Here is a story from my childhood. I was snacking on nuts and it came to mind.

Sears was popular when I was a child. Our family shopped there frequently, although now, I can't remember exactly where our Sears was. Paramus (NJ) maybe? I think it was in a mall; and this was before malls became so popular. We ordered from their catalog and we'd go to the store to pick up our order. They had retail, too. It was a frequent family outing for us on a Friday night. 

Our Sears had a candy counter. It was an old fashioned counter with a glass cabinet that sold candy by the pound. The candy was not individually wrapped or branded - you couldn't find M&Ms or Twizzler's at the candy counter. It had trays of unwrapped candy, and you told the salesperson how much you wanted. She scooped it up for you, put it in little white paper bag, and weighed it. 

Mom and Dad liked to buy a treat or two when we were at Sears on the way out after all the shopping was done. Something to snack on while we waited for Mom to finish up, or on the drive home. Mom liked "Bridge Mix" and salted cashews. You don't see Bridge Mix sold much any more. For those who don't remember, Bridge Mix is an assortment of chocolate covered goodies. The mix included nougats, several kinds of nuts, raisins, caramels, and the like. Dad liked the Bridge Mix, too. In the later years, there was a new selection: "mint lentils." They were a favorite, also. 

Mom liked her cashews. She would ooh and ahh over the salty toasty nuts and tell my sister and me how delicious they were. I thought they were OK but certainly not as good as peanuts to my grade-school palate. Her swooning inevitably coaxed me to try a few, and then I ended up wondering what all the fuss was about. 

Bridge Mix was also OK. I liked the raisins, peanuts, and caramels, but it was an awfully big risk when choosing a piece.  The pieces were thickly covered with dark or milk chocolate so it wasn't easy to tell what was inside. Each piece was roughly the same size, maybe 1/2 an inch in diameter or so. You could end up with that awful crumbly white stuff inside, or even licorice (ewww!). Mom and Dad wouldn't let us put it back! (As a grown up, I now know why....yuk). As a consolation, I would suck off the chocolate and get rid of the filling if a bad choice was made. 

Once in a while, Mom or Dad would buy nonpareils for my sister and me. Those were our absolute favorites. Milk chocolate with candy sprinkles on top. Crunchy if you bit them, creamy if you sucked on them. 

Today, my tastes have changed. Bridge mix is hard to be found - the only one widely available is Brachs, and they use inferior chocolate. Not worth the calories. Cashews are a delight, almost swoon-worthy to the adult me! And nonpareils are still a favorite, if the chocolate is good quality. 

Sears back then (and many other larger stores) were true "department stores." They offered a wider variety of products. I guess back then, they didn't analyze the numbers as closely and trim off the low-profit and low-volume departments. There might have even been a little more room for sentiment - the boss liked the candy counter, so it stayed. 

Holy Cannoli!

This post has nothing to do with Cannoli...

We picked 62 carrots on Sunday night - almost 8 lbs of carrots! We found two peppers ready, and trimmed the top of the basil.  The carrots were amazing - some were picture perfect:

Some were kinda gnarly:

And then there were these two. I call them 'Adam and Eve....'

In all, it was a satisfying harvest. We even inspired another gardener who was there harvesting to let us glean her bean plantings. We ended up with a pound and a half of fresh green beans. 

I hope the people who received these vegetables enjoyed them and appreciated them ad were blessed by them. 

Mini Activism - the Garden

Grace Garden is doing very well. It's so exciting to see the vegetables mature. I remember when they were just little seedlings and now they are large and bearing fruit. I think we're ready to pick some carrots and there's a mature bell pepper! Carrots are like a mystery present. You really don't know how big it is going to be until you pull it.

There are a number of little peppers and lots of cayenne peppers getting close. Our 4 tomato plants are heavy with promising green globes.

The seeds I ordered for the succession plantings arrived today! More carrot and beet seeds, and we have more lettuce and spinach seeds for the fall. Just to try something new, we are going to try broccoli!

As Mother Theresa advises, we are doing this one small thing with great love.

Becoming a Community Activist

This garden I have started is infectious. I'm excited about it, I love seeing the plants as they grow, I delight in pulling the mature vegetable from the vine, or out of the soil, or off the stalk. I feel like I'm making a difference, however small.

And it's just fun. I get to grow more more things than I could ever use personally, and I get to give the results to someone who wants....no, needs... it.

I heard about Will Allen from three different places lately. He built an organization in Milwaukee called Growing Power that feeds thousands of people with local and urban agriculture. It includes animal production (tilapia, bees, chickens) and vegetable production. The organization has an arm that provides training and conferences to empower others to do something similar.

Could I do something this big? Do I want to?

Right now, I don't have a vision for a large farm that I can't ultimately run by myself. But it would be so awesome to do.  What could I envision, if I really thought about it?

Opportunities are presenting themselves, without my even trying....I just wanted some people to help me with the garden plot, and my church ended up funding the whole project. Now, they've found some grant money maybe we could get. The amount we would need to fund the project is way less than the minimum grant. Maybe we could use the extra money for training?

The recurrence of the name Will Allen seems to be a sign. A nudge.

Lord let my heart...

Lord, let my heart be good soil
open to the seed of your word.
Lord let my heart be good soil, 
where love can grow and peace is understood.


When my heart is hard, break the stone away.
When my heart is cold, warm it with the day
When my heart is lost, lead me on your way.


Lord, let my heart....Lord, let my heart....


Lord, let my heart be good soil. 

My first Mother's Day without Mom

Christmas didn't do it, birthdays didn't do it, but Mother's Day did. It has not been easy the last few weeks. It's bothering me that Mom is gone and the world is going on as if everything is just fine.

Everyone at work has forgotten, and they all compare notes about what they're doing for Mother's day. Sure, they don't mean harm. I just wish they wouldn't go on so much.

Mother's day is fine. It's a good thing, overall, and why not have an occasion to show appreciation for someone whose role in everyone's life is generally overlooked. I don't know what the right response is, though. It seems like it is one of our society's ways of glorifying and denigrating a subset of people. We fabricate a "special" day or month for them because they're so important in our lives. Think: Mother's Day, Father's Day, Black History Month, Nurse's Day, Labor Day, etc. Why not make white man day? or banking executive week? It's obvious - they don't need any gesture of appreciation or power. Our society rewards them well enough every day.

But, I digress.

Lately, I have enjoyed working on Mom's unfinished cross stitch projects. The work has been comforting. I have assumed possession of many of her sewing and craft items. I have more embroidery/cross stitch floss than I could use in a lifetime. But just having this stuff is also comforting - I don't want some stranger working on these things. It seems really sad to me to have it end up in a landfill.

I have made some progress trying to build my own tribe. I went to a second happy hour of KC's No Kidding group and enjoyed it again. This group might be a good thing for me.

A Cross Post: Life Taking an Expected Turn

This was also posted on my other blog, Rikrax.blogspot.com. I think I'll keep the topic here. Rikrax is much more lighthearted. Here, I can be as manic as I care to be.


My father, a widower less than a year, has deteriorating health. He has some neurological dysfunction and I am steeling myself for a disappointing diagnosis. The fact is we don't have a clear diagnosis, and this is common for neurological problems ("Parkinsonian symptoms and possibly early dementia"). There is another test to be done and this tests may show that a (relatively) simple surgery can help his situation, maybe even reverse some of the symptoms! On the other hand, the test may show that surgery would not help; or, it would only help some with certain symptoms but not all. In those cases, we will have to get through one day at a time.

My Dad lives in Virginia. There is no family nearby. His neurological dysfunction is physical and mental - he is increasingly forgetful and I question his judgment at times. He is stiff, slow, arthritic. The neurologist said he shouldn't drive, but of course, he lives alone in a house at the end of a long semi-country street. Not being able to drive would almost completely isolate him, and as an introvert with neurological dysfunction, he is not gregarious. That means, few friends (yes, a few good ones), and he wouldn't dream of asking anyone to help. In his mind, there is no need to ask for help, anyway.

So....what to do?

I am here in Virginia for the weekend. Two days ago, I went to the neurologist with Dad - to hear the results from some recent testing was the motivation for coming here. I am also working on the house and yard. It's in decent shape but there are signs of neglect here and there. Dad does not like to do yard work, so the yard is rather sloppy. Thankfully, he has a yard service to mow the lawn, trim, and edge. The house is fairly clean, and thankfully, he has a maid service to come in and clean up.  There is (mostly) fresh food in the house and Dad's eating well.

It is not a crisis yet. Now is the time to set a direction and some goals, including selling the house, moving Dad to a retirement community, and reducing the driving. Hence, I'm here to clean out part of the house, clean up the yard and look for home maintenance things that will prep the house for sale.

Getting Dad to understand and agree will be the harder challenge.