What a Difference a Day Makes

Sunday, we hiked again. We went right across the road from Friday's hike. It's a different landscape, but again, there was a nice brisk breeze and amazing views. The photos here are from that hike, but to be honest, Monday feels a whole lot different than Friday or Sunday. Earlier in the day Monday, after hearing a hysterical work story from J. about a grocery store he worked at as a young teen, it sent me looking for the old store and I spent some time looking at photos here and reading about Alexander's:

In 1920, Samuel H. Alexander opened a small, 25' x 40' store at the corner of 41st Street and Hooper Avenue in Los Angeles. By 1927, Alexander's business had grown from the initial location, and he opened one of the first supermarkets in Southern California. The small chain grew to at least 13 stores, most in the San Fernando Valley, with locations in La Canada, Northridge, Van Nuys to Hollywood. The logo for Alexander's was a thick, lower case "A." Employees called the logo the "pregnant A," according to a 1971 Los Angeles Times story. Alexander's (just as often written without the apostrophe) stayed family-run until it was sold in 1976, with various market chains taking over the locations.

Fun Fact: Prompted by his daughter Christine's environmental concerns, president Veryl Alexander committed in the early 1970s to biodegradable packaging for meat, eggs and produce; labeling items as "an ecology preferred product"; encouraging shoppers to reuse bags and setting up newspaper recycling bins.

https://clickamericana.com/topics/food-drink/vintage-1960s-supermarkets-old-fashioned-grocery-stores

 

 After a trip down memory lane of all the grocery stores I've known, I was slammed back to current times with the news out of Boulder, CO. Another shooting, second in a week, this time in a grocery store. My wind is knocked out by yet another tragedy. How are we supposed to do this? Black Lives Matter-STOP Asian hate-Covid memorial quilt/vaccines/variants-EDD-Miami Beach Spring Break Crowds-The Border is Closed-rumps legal life-Capitol criminals found/arrested/and ?-Work?-On&On-On&On-On&On...

It stinks. 

How important are our hikes? How do we go about enjoying getting out...blogging and writing about small bridges or tunnels under the road discovered...words about brilliant blue skies and hawks and scented memories as the breeze blows through the California scrub brush?

The number of mass shootings has become staggering. I hear researched figures reported.

FBI 2000-2018

 Where will the next one be?

? school...place of worship...grocery store...mall...movie theater...a festival...a concert  ?

It seems these mass shootings are everywhere, anywhere.

2019 had 417 mass shootings, including the one out here at Saugus High.

I think what will the statistics for 2020 be? What about 2021?

But, a grocery store...we all need to shop for food...we all go there, right?

I'm flooded with memories of shopping with my own children when they were young. How many times did we do that? As they grew up, I made intentional choices to foster independence, family teamwork and time management. So, I'd send them off to fetch specific items on our list. My daughter practiced pirouettes in the bread aisle while getting bakery products and my son would dash off to the far back of the store to get milk. Shopping was language and math learning. It was family time. how many times were they more than an arms reach away? My almost grown grandson works in a grocery store and the baby grandson has years and years ahead of him. We all do.

So, with heavy hearts, we will rise in the morning.

We will hike and sing and cry.

We will speak up and speak out. We will make quilt blocks for those who have been lost to disease and unjust violence.

We will read and learn and write to share who we are with the world.

We will listen and go on and we will remember.

May you...no,

May we be safe. May we be healthy. May we be content...

for what else is there?

xo

Photographs by NAE ©2021