Our Weekly Shopping Trips

My mom didn't drive when us kids were young so we had to wait until Dad got up to go to town and do the weekly shopping.

We always went shopping on Saturday Morning after Dad got up. He worked 2nd shift so he would get up about 10 AM, have 1 or 2 cups of coffee and we were off to town. We banked and did all our shopping in Davison, Michigan. Dad would stop at the Davison Bank and cash his check. (Usually once a month he would get us girls a silver dollar.) Then he would drive us to the A & P store. That's where mom did her grocery shopping. He would park in the A & P parking lot and walk over to the Davison Hotel (the local bar) and he would have a beer or two, visiting with his friends and sometimes some of his family would be there, while mom did her shopping.

Most of the time us 2 girls would go in with mom and then when she would be in the checkout line one or both of us would run and tell Dad mom was in checkout. He would finish up his beer and then come back to the car. Depending on how long it took her sometimes he would send us back and tell mom to come over to the Hotel. See we had to be back home by a certain time so Dad could get some lunch and mom had to pack his lunch for him to go to work. He worked most of the time 7 days a week 12 hrs a day.

Always the boy who bagged up the groceries would bring them out and put them in the car for mom. Back then you didn't have to lock everything up in the trunk and lock the doors on the car.

I remember one Saturday morning while mom was in the checkout line, the line was quite long and she was way back, a man was smoking a cigar. Mom passed out on the floor. My sister ran over to the hotel and got Dad. Boy we were scared. Dad got mom out to the car and then went back in to pay for the groceries. Back then you could smoke in the store. I don't remember seeing ash trays anywhere so they must have put them out on the floor. My Dad smoked but it was something about the cigar that bothered mom.