An envisioning. 2016, and two in the afternoon in May at the shop in Quantrill Bay.
Oh to be here.
A new shipment from New York to start the season off. Helium balloons to decorate the front door, along with new awnings in pink and prune something stripes that are coming tomorrow. The prune ones looking more like the purple in an acai breakfast bowl, drowned in octopus ink, but the latest thing according to the buyers. Them one doesn’t argue with.
Tunics on one side, with capris on the other. Maxi dresses hung up on the back wall. Beach wraps waiting to be spun on their round racks over by the front door. The conch shells dusted and set around. Not exactly local, but sea urchins not as festive looking. Not being able to hear the sea with one, no matter how long you hold one up to your ear, either. The Jersey Shore and tropical seas a long way away, but people loving them anyway. A Lily Pulitzer effect, it must be.
All that set, but the supermarket and that being urgent. A few weeks of frozen lunches needing to be stocked up on for when the ladies all arrive for some lunch hour shopping, leaving only enough time to work the buttons on the microwave and wolf it all down instead of being your own lady of leisure, organic sodas and all, from the sandwich shop down the street.
An aisle and a half with frozen lunches all stuffed with organic something. Some of them edible, but others that look more like dead somethings that live on the edge of a riverbank, probably tasting like they just spent two weeks in a compost heap.
Healthier but yet . . . frozen peanut butter and jelly dumplings down at the end of the case but no . . . impossible to wrap up and stick in the freezer where no one can read the ingredient list and whine . . . if only . . . living where everyone eats healthy a great thing but a bore too . . . but something fun stuffed back behind the spinach lasagna with its mozzarella made by little elves with a price to match . . . Swanson and a fried chicken dinner with the mashed potatoes and little cranberry sauce square in the middle . . . what Mother always bought when there was a party what with TV dinners being cheaper than making extra party food and the apple crisp dessert being a real child pleaser . . . Yes!
Late 1960s-1970s Swanson TV dinner. American. Photograph via daughterofthe70s on Instagram. via Instagram.
Late 1960s-1970s fried chicken Swanson TV dinner. American. Photograph via daughterofthe70s on Instagram. via Instagram.
