Country Chatter

I went to Food Lion today and couldn’t believe my eyes. I got in line to check out and decided to take another stroll through the store and take pictures of the insane, unbelievable panic buying because of “Corona Fever”! I just had to document this and show Gene what it really looked like.

By now I was starting to feel silly and in a very jolly mood. Everyone was talking to everyone, shaking their heads, and talking about “the Virus”. But there is more…..

By now I have seen one of the managers and talked to him. He said, “This has beat all snow storm predictions records and that does not include today which tops all the days so far.”

But guess what…… these two aisles were fully stocked, almost looked untouched. Amazing. Either they are keeping it fully stocked or people haven’t been driven to drink…yet!!!!

I didn’t see any mass panic today or hoarders with huge shopping carts full. The parking lot was extra full of cars but people were in a relaxed, jovial mood talking to each other (even strangers)-mostly in disbelief at what they saw. The young fellow checking out my groceries was in a good mood, laughing and joking in a pleasant way with all his customers. I complimented him on his attitude. It was contagious!

I wasn’t going to buy anything that wasn’t on my list but on my picture taking round of the store I decided to pick up a couple of “extra” items, just in case…..a jar of Mayo, box of salt, bag of flour, box of Mucinex and a jar of coffee. This isn’t just happening in the grocery store a mile up the road. It is happening nation-wide and across the world.

It is going to be interesting to see how all this plays out. Personally, the concern for me is not food, but pharmaceuticals. I know that some of our food does come from overseas, but they are saying 98% of our drugs are made in China. With the tariff situation and now the corona epidemic, if we run out of medical supplies and pharmaceuticals, we will get in trouble with health care really, really fast and that will affect more than just corona patients.

Maybe this will be good for all of us to have to stop and slow down. Enjoy the simple pleasures of life with your family. Stay at home. It is not boring. Do things you haven’t done in a long time. Clean a cluttered corner, fix a good home cooked meal-from scratch, bake cookies with your kids, read a book (better yet, read a book to your kids), play games together as a family. Enjoy the home time and DO NOT complain about being bored. Be grateful for the blessings you have.