LAME-OH

Lately I’ve been trying to pay special attention to the memories that flash through my brain. If I really stop and notice, I realize they’re really odd and random snips from the past 30 years. One day, it was a quick memory of the entrance/exit automatic doors in the “Big Kroger” (now morningstar storage on Silas Creek.) We got to go to that grocery store on Fridays. It was a special treat. My Dad would get out of work early, around 4 p.m. and we would head down Lockland Ave.

This store was so exciting. It was huge, MUCH huger than the “Little Kroger” at Cloverdale. (It was in the area where Panera, that frame store and the dollar store are now). There was a deli where you could buy fried chicken or a fountain drink and sit down to enjoy it. They had an odd gift aisle with teddy bears and dried flower arrangements and wreaths. The frozen food was in those waist-high open coolers. Once, my brother and I, horrified that they sold frozen RABBIT to EAT, promptly hid all of the boxes under other frozen dinners.

A couple times we got separated from my mom and we found her by her large jingling key ring that hung around her wrist. That’s how I still hear her coming.