Grocery store shopping amid Covid-19

by Mary Lou Clifton

I just had what can only be described as a near death experience. I went to the grocery store. Now the store itself was not the problem although, clearly, all of their arrows pointed in the wrong direction.

Now to date, I’ve either done curbside pickup, or my kids have shopped for me. But sometimes you are the only one who knows exactly the right red pepper when you see it. So I went to the store.

You need to know that you cannot breathe when you have a mask on. I expected to see people passed out in every aisle. I thought about lifting my mask for just a small bit of air but knew that the virus was hiding, waiting for me to do that.

The store sanitizes carts and has goop for your hands, but they desperately need oxygen stations. Divers can share oxygen tanks in an emergency. Every other aisle should have an oxygen tank with disposable masks for safety. By the time you check out and the cashier needs a price check on your lettuce, you just tell her to type in fifty dollars. That’s how desperate one is for air.

There we all were in the parking lot. Loading our groceries and gulping huge gulps of air. I had a little trouble getting home because I had my head hanging out the car window the entire way. Red peppers really aren’t all that great anyway.