Yesterday afternoon Caroline and I had to run to HEB because we were out of everything.
Coffee filters and Honey Barbecue Fritos.
It’s a wonder we survived.
Anyway, while we were at the store I decided to run over to the pharmacy section and get some Zyrtec-D because the oak pollen has ganged up with the mold and they are trying to kill me.
We were standing in line at the pharmacy, waiting to request the Zyrtec-D and submit to a full interrogation, when I noticed an elderly couple sitting in the chairs to the right of me. They were either waiting for their prescriptions to be filled or for the shuttle to take them back to the Happy Valley Assisted Living Community.
The elderly gentlemen kept looking at something just past me. Finally, with much effort, he got up and shuffled over to look more closely at the items on the aisle right behind me. I heard him give an outraged “HMMPH!” as he shuffled back over to his wife.
He sat down next to her and loudly said, “They’re charging folks $2.85 for Chapstick! The whole world is goin’ to hell in a handbasket.”
God bless you, Sir.
And may I suggest you stay away from the gas pumps.
Jenn says:
Old people know how to tell it like it is
My Chapstick/lip balm addiction is in danger with all this inflation…
May 7th, 2008 at 5:41 am
suburbancorrespondent says:
I like being interrogated on why I’m buying my 3rd bottle of children’s Sudafed in a month. I expect the DEA to come smashing down my door any minute now.
May 7th, 2008 at 6:27 am
Chelle' says:
HEe-Heee… stay away from the gas pumps…
May 7th, 2008 at 6:30 am
Dana says:
Gotta love old people, telling it like it is.
May 7th, 2008 at 7:31 am
Lora Lynn says:
Yea, I pretty much would give up driving before I gave up my lip emollient.
May 7th, 2008 at 8:10 am
Melanie says:
Yep — tell it like it is! Too funny…
May 7th, 2008 at 8:13 am
Sister Honey Bunch says:
I love that man! $2.85 indeed!
May 7th, 2008 at 8:20 am
Jessica says:
You have sparked my interest…in Fritos! What kind of Honey Barbeque Fritos are you getting? The spirally ones or the regular shaped Fritos in Honey Barbeque flavor? I can’t find the regular shaped ones anywhere and I really, really want them. Those spirally ones hurt my teeth!
May 7th, 2008 at 8:24 am
Amanda says:
I nearly had a heart attack yesterday when I discovered my bucket of chicken wings had gone up in price $1.00*. What is this world coming to?
(*Mind you, I was going to have a heart attack because of the $1, not because I buy chicken wings by the bucket.)
May 7th, 2008 at 8:26 am
Kim says:
Between my wonderful allergist who insisted (with my blessing) that I become dependent on daily decongestants and the number of times I have been fingerprinted for my job, I expect the Feds to jump out from behind a bush any day now and take me away.
May 7th, 2008 at 8:27 am
Melanie says:
Laughing out loud. I think he was sitting next to me at the urologist’s office.
May 7th, 2008 at 8:29 am
Fuschia says:
Last week I was lamenting the fact that for $2.19 you no longer get a 5# bag of sugar, it is now only 4#’s, when an elderly lady asked me if I had gotten my “sty-mu-lus” check yet, because “they get you at the gas pumps, they get you in the grocery, and now they’re gonna get you with the ’sty-mu-lus’ check!”
I seriously had to face the shelf
May 7th, 2008 at 8:43 am
Megan Silva says:
You crack me up!! I tagged you, rules on my blog.
May 7th, 2008 at 8:50 am
mindy says:
That is so funny!!!!
May 7th, 2008 at 9:02 am
Natalie Witcher says:
I’m excited when I can find a movie theatre for 7 bucks! WHA???
May 7th, 2008 at 9:45 am
Emily says:
I totally remember buying Bonne Bell for fifty cents!
I also remember when Chapstick was a whole dollar!
Sigh….times, they are a changin’.
Emily
http://twodogsrunningsouth.blogspot.com
May 7th, 2008 at 9:46 am
Kara Messner says:
Oh that made me laugh!
May 7th, 2008 at 10:02 am
Martha Jane says:
Hysterical!!! My husband (an assoc. pastor) and I love visiting our elderly of the church and find it an amazing accomplishment when we DON’T have a conversation with them about their bathroom habits and their “lack of” memory!
May 7th, 2008 at 10:17 am
Jennsational says:
Seriously, honey bbq fritos kind of rock my world. And they’re almost the same price of the chapstick - I wonder what he would think about that!
May 7th, 2008 at 10:42 am
Kelly @ Love Well says:
Gas prices up here jumped 20-cents overnight.
At least Chapstick doesn’t do that.
And at my neighborhood Target, it’s still possible to get a tube for 99-cents on sale.
Maybe we’re only headed for hell in a really stylish purse.
May 7th, 2008 at 11:17 am
Vicki Courtney says:
I love old people and can’t wait to tell it like it is without a care in the world. Oh wait, I do that already…
May 7th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
JP's Mom says:
Sometimes I feel like a little old lady as I think some of those comments in my own head while at the store.
Maybe if we just eat less and walk more?
If only I could convince the 3 year old of that!
May 7th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Daphne says:
Funny! I just wish gas was even that cheap per gallon right now.
May 7th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
franticallysimple says:
I can’t wait until I can get all curmudgeonly. Only 35 more years….
May 7th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
julie schaal says:
love honey bbq fritos!!!
May 7th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
Tara says:
He could get chapstick for free if he clipped coupons and shopped the deals at CVS! Picture that!
May 7th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
mrs. f5 says:
Thank heavens the Happy Valley shuttle didn’t take them to Whole Foods (or, as mr. f5 begrudgingly refers to it, Whole Paycheck).
I once had an octagenarian follow me up and down every. single. aisle, picking up various items, squinting at the price diplays, then bellowing at me, “Can you BELIEVE THIS? CAN YOU? HIGHWAY ROBBERY, IS WHAT THIS IS.”
May 7th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
embracing my cup says:
Big Mama, I stay about five days behind most of the time! It has become a way of life for me! Anyhoo, I just read your post about the Snoodle’s Tale. And, I had to comment - albeit several days late! I love that movie! Erik has used that video speaking to both youth and adults! The message is incredible! Love it! Your post was beautiful!
And, back to the post at hand, I acutally heard these words come out of my mouth the other day. . .
“Why I remember when I payed less than a dollar a gallon for gas!” I said it to a friend my age, and she didn’t even bat an eyelash at my comment. So, now I know without a doubt that we are getting old.
Way old.
May 7th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Tammy says:
Hey, gotta’ agree with him! I’m starting to get old myself because I remember when candy bars were 10 cents!
And don’t get me started about postage stamps…;)
But yes, Bonnie Bell…I so remember all their ads in Seventeen magazine!
May 7th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
Miscellaneous From Missy says:
Ha! I love him!
May 7th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
Annabelle says:
Inflation is horrible!!
May 7th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
Darlene says:
Gas is 3.85 a gallon here. I never thought that I would have to think about whether I should run errands or not.
It’s crazy!
May 7th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Amy Beth @ Ministry So Fabulous! says:
All I’ve got to say is that $2.85 tube of Chapstick? That’d buy enough processed nacho cheese to feed about 40 girls.
Isn’t that sad? I mean, that 40 girls are going to have to eat that cheese?
May 7th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
Honest to YaYa says:
Your blog is so funny!
I enjoy it very much!?
May 7th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
April says:
can I get an AMEN !!
May 7th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
Pam says:
Hello-O Dollar Store for chapstick and Fritos………
May 7th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
Happy Mommy says:
I think we will be staying home more this summer, because of the cost of gas.
May 7th, 2008 at 7:15 pm
Vania says:
I was in the grocery store a few years ago when I passed an elderly woman in the juice aisle. In a really loud voice she said, “I can’t believe they charge twice as much for the juice in the smaller bottles! They’re just trying to make people think that they’re getting more than they really are and THEY’RE ALL GOING TO HELL FOR IT!”
At which point I quickly moved on to the next aisle.
May 7th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
Maxime says:
LOL! Gotta love old people. I wanna be cool like that when I grow up.
May 7th, 2008 at 10:44 pm
The Pumkin Patcch says:
MUST.STOP.LAUGING!!! Gotta love older people…they tell it like it is!
And I just bought some of that Zyrtec-D myself, Pollen here is taking me down single handedly. I couldn’t believe that they basically need your life story before you purchase it!
May 8th, 2008 at 12:07 am
Janera says:
Note to self: Do NOT read Big Mama at school with a classroom full of students who are taking a test. Very disruptive, that loud cackling coming from the teacher’s desk.
oh, my. so funny.
Hey, I bet some readers think you’re making up that “Happy Valley” part. Happy Valley, Texas. Been there. Don’t blink.
May 8th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Cara says:
Abortion. Homosexual Marriage. War. Recession. Climate Change.
But the price of chapstick, this is somehow a roadsign along the path to Hell?
LOL. If I make it to my senior years, I plan to be just THAT fun.
May 9th, 2008 at 10:47 am
3CHEERS4MOM says:
A few weeks ago I had to run to target to get a few odds and ends. Tooth paste, coffee, and children’s cough medicine. While at the checkout line the checker ask me for my id. I stopped and looked around in the cart (I thought that a bottle of wine might have jumped in there, as it does from time to time.) Then I looked in my wallet to get my driver’s license and, it seems that I had forgotten to return it after I had been at the bank. I looked at him and said that I was sorry but I had left it in my car, “I’m a clearly over twenty-one, my birthdate is 1973.” I told the checker. “I’m sorry but I can’t sell this to you.” He told me. Now the line has gotten longer, because they only allow two lines to be open during the day, and the baby is starting to cry louder by the second. I apologized to the people behind me and asked for the manager. I told her that I was trying to buy children’s cold medicine. She just laughed and entered my birthdates. I just couldn’t believe it. Never fails. -amy
May 12th, 2008 at 1:10 pm