Albertsons

Tonight I went to pick up two things at Albertsons: orange juice, and mascara. I didn't expect to come home with a bagful of old memories.

I was chilling in the orange juice section - my most familiar section - and then I got nostalgic when I looked at the sunnyD and remembered trying it over and over because all my friends (I say all, I had like two good friends and a lot of cousins) loved it and I hated it. Every time. I still do. And then I counted all the orange drinks and there are about 29 different ones in Albertsons, not including sunnyD. And I've tried almost all of them. I have a favorite that I get every time: Florida's Natural With Pulp. That's it.

And then I remembered those little coupon dispensers. Do you remember those? They were red and you pulled little slippery slips of coupons out of them, and then it would whir and another one would pop out, ready for you to pull. It was like magic. I pulled them out all the time. I would run in front of my mom - which she hated, because she'd always run over me - and pull them all out and then put them back in the top so they could be reused. Because my mom never used them. I didn't understand that. I thought it was money, pretty much. I was really sad when they switched to the current Albertsons and they didn't have any of those red dispensers. I remember a lot of stuff about that Albertsons. I remember my mom saying she would love me even if I looked like a troll and had green hair. I remember the pinatas would hang from the ceiling and the day my mom told me they weren't filled with candy at that point. That was a hard day. And I remember when Ayla was born when I was four and I showed her off to the check-out lady. We went to that lady almost every time and I always wanted to show her something, like my new CTR ring, or a bead bracelet I got from the dollar store. I miss that old dollar store. It was by Hometown Pizza and Mikes. I liked Mikes too. They had a cool crafts section.

Then I wandered around some more, and I found some 10 for $10 spaghettios. I never had those. Ever. I remember being three, and sitting on our old nineties blue carpet, watching our old tv when a commercial for spaghettios came on and wanting them really bad because Madelyn had some in her food storage. I thought they would be squishy though so I never asked. I remember that the Rugrats came on right after that and not being allowed to watch it because it was a "crap show" so I went outside and played on our rocket tree instead. I miss that rocket tree, and the climbing tree. I buried two broken barbie babies right by it. And digging them up again to play with them, and then burying them again. I wonder if they're still there. The same day as the spaghettios commercial my mom taught me how to write my name, so I wrote it everywhere. On my dresser, on the bathroom wall behind the towels, on the spring-cover for the screen door. I did it behind the towels because I hated the towels and I wanted a bathrobe. I never got one of those either. Or slippers or those eye-covers.

Anyways. Back to Alberstons.

I then wandered to the liquor aisle. I had never really been down that one before. I stopped and looked at all of them. Wine has some very beautiful names. I wonder who invented them and how they stayed in business and who buys them. Maybe they have different tastes even if they're just a tiny bit different. Like my orange juice vs. the same kind but with calcium added. I wonder if I would like the taste of wine. I randomly remembered then that Necia always wanted to name her kids Bergita and Berguta. Maybe one of the wines had a similar name.

Then I went in search of the coffee. But they didn't have pretty names like the wine.

And when I was done looking... I didn't want to go home. Home is way different now. Necia goes to college and has surgery and a potential fiancee. Ayla sings Jonas Brothers and stuff and doesn't know anything about growing up with 90s music. The little kids never play outside on rocketship trees, because we have five computers they can play on instead. Our house is way bigger and doesn't host blue carpet. But. I still don't have a bathrobe. And I still haven't ever tasted spaghettios.