These
are the continuing adventures of a Swedish immigrant during her first
year as an American. She boldly went where she'd never gone
before...please come along on Adventures
in America.
I
was overwhelmed with the number of grocery stores we had to choose
from in America, and with the choices in those stores.
In
Sweden, there were small stores all over the place that sold the basics, and if you're a
Swede, that would be all you'd need because at least as of 1996,
they're still not selling much pre-made, throw in the microwave or
oven stuff. In the town square of our little town was a larger
grocery store with more choices, and it stocked cleaning supplies,
paper products, etc. In downtown Gothenburg there was a mega-store. Not a Sam's or
Costco, because it wasn't buy in bulk, just HUGE and with better
prices. We'd make a trek there every once in a while, and it was a
grand adventure we looked forward to.
My
first trip to a grocery store after we moved was with Grandma Vivian,
and she had me pick out some ice-cream. Yes, that is funny. Read B
if you don't know why. I stood over that ice-cream cooler for a long
time, looking at the packages. Some of the ice-cream came in
beautiful, crystal dishes with pedestals, some came in bowls, some
came with all kinds of toppings and some came with a whole bunch of
people who'd come over and eat that ice-cream with you. I chose the
crystal. It had orange sherbet in it, which I thought I might like,
but what I really wanted was that crystal goblet thing to eat my
ice-cream in.
Imagine
my disappointment when we get home and I get to open the ice-cream
(without having lunch of course) and there are NO CRYSTAL GOBLETS.
“Grandma,
where are the goblets?”
“What
in the world are you talking about?”
“On
the front of the package it shows them, see?”
“Oh
honey, that's just a “serving suggestion” see the writing here?”
Such
was my introduction to those two important words...
