Another Interesting Employee

Meet Got Dinner.
He is a direct descendent of Old Dan, who was Whit's partner.

My Dan, Boss Dan, is Old Dan's grandson.

George is Old Dan's son and Boss Dan's Dad.

Got Dinner is Boss Dan's brother.

He is sort of a Verne substitute. I say that because he threw a paint roller at me today.

Got Dinner thinks that Spam and yogurt smoothies are a good idea.

I told him to use Low Sodium Spam and he could then call it a health drink.

Plus, I am in charge of Spam and could order cases of it for him.

Historic Dust

Products to suit your lifestyle

My friend, the Hot Sauce Expert, stopped in the store yesterday. He called my attention to an interesting health related product out back in hardware:

The Low Sodium Salt Shaker

Then he noticed we also stock a High Sodium Salt Shaker

 Clearly the Hot Sauce Expert has an insightful grasp of the Hardware inventory.

Mad Dolly Skills

I enjoy sorting and rotating beverage deliveries.
Who needs Verne anyway?

These piles have to be moved.

Using this.

The beer goes here, right behind me.

But the wine goes to the wine cellar, which is complicated...

...because the wine cellar is stuck behind the Unmoving Ramp, so when you get there you have to duck under the ramp with your full dolly.

Plus, you have to squeeze past Mr. Do Not Use...

...then negotiate the tight corner by those red crates to get under the ramp.

Is it any wonder I can claim Mad Dolly Skills on my resume?

Still thinking about what a great day Friday was

It was a kick ass day at the store on Friday from start to finish. 

3:45 pm as I was leaving I saw this.

Those are fun people.

And look at their fun toys!

Scenes From The Lost Underground World

This is the dead end where I discovered the J. R. Liggett's Old Fashioned Bar Shampoo.

I keep trying to remember what I was doing there anyway.

I guess I was there becuase I had never been there before?
Because my forebears were intrepid explorers and my DNA is programmed to explore strange new worlds and seek out new life?

The Hock Thing

Last week's False Hock Emergency  got me interested in the downstairs hock box again but I still haven't opened it.





This is where the ham hocks live upstairs.







This is where they live downstairs.


SCARY!!



They've not been touched since I came on the scene. If we ever sell all those jars of hocks wedged between Rice-a-Roni and Prego Sauce Comma Huge then I suppose I will HAVE to open that box. I am confident that I will never have to open the box of pig feet.

Dan told me we used to have lamb's tongues in a jar as well. Ewwwwwwwwwwwww!! He said this guy from Connecticut would come once a year and buy the whole case. I guess he died becuase no one has ever been in asking me if we carry lamb's tongues in a jar. Which is a good thing becuase I ain't orderin' no lamb tongue. Unless, um, Dan tells me to.

The disgusting jars 'o feet.

Miscellaneous Gratitude Moment

Yesterday at about 7:20 AM I had a gratitude moment right here. It has been a looooooong time since I had one of those. I felt that THING. That LOVE THING. That OH MY GOD I AM SOOOOOO FUCKING LUCKY thing. I shouted to my son, "Get my camera out of my blue bag! Quick! Take a pic out of the windshield!"

J. & P. Coats

Next to the thread, almost buried in miscellaneous hats, is embroidery floss.

Stoking Sam Daniels

First, rake the coals.

Then throw in a couple of logs.

HG In Action

It was a kick ass day from start to finish. It started out kick ass when, first thing, I caught HG stoking the little stove in the basement.

He told me about this old stove sitting off to the side. Funny I had never noticed it before.
He said he stoked this stove in the store for about 30 years. But it was cracked and they had to replace it. He said he always thought that he would throw a log in the front and it would come out the back though the crack. He said the stove was old when it came to the store from the train station at Lewiston. Lewiston was spittin' distance from Norwich but doesn't exit anymore. It was wiped out when the highway went through in the 1960's. The train station building is still there. It is an architect's office now.

When it is cold in the store I love to walk past this stove. It is always warm and inviting and you want to pull up a chair and sit and pass the time in idle conversation with people like HG.

More 15 below zero weather

Yesterday I was asked, "Did you stoke Sam Daniels?"
I said, "HUH?"
"Did you stoke Sam Daniels?"
"Say that again"
"Did you stoke Sam Daniels?"
"I still don't get it. What are you saying??!!"
"Sam Daniels. In the basement. Did you put wood in it?"
"OH! Sam Daniels! HELL NO I WOULD NEVER TOUCH IT UNLESS SOMEONE SHOWED ME HOW!!!"

Turns out, someone put wood in but didn't stir the coals in the correct manner, or at all, apparently.

The store is still heated with wood.

Thread and Ribbon

It is next to glue.

The Miscellaneous Stationary Items Aisle

I try to stay away. I really do. But there are so many fun, shiny things there.

J. R. Liggett's Old Fashioned Bar Shampoo

Early this week I found these sitting on a dark shelf waaaaaaaaay in the back of the basement looking all dusty and forlorn and ancient.

I got waaaaaaay excited becuase this past summer a woman came into the store asking for a shampoo that was in a bar. Her son was hiking the AT and wanted some for his journey. He told her you could get it at the store.

I said what I always say in such cases, "I have never seen anything like that in the store. That doesn't mean it is not here. It could be that I just haven't seen it yet."

And we proceeded to look all over the store for it.

Finally, 6 months later I found it!

I snatched them off the basement shelf and cleaned them up and examined them for a long time.

I wish I knew who that woman was. Next time someone comes in for Bar Shampoo I will be ready for them!

It is just a tiny bar, not as big as standard bath soap bars. It fits nicely into my palm. The wrappers are nicely made - smooth and shiny, very pleasant to look at and to hold.

Pricey, eh?

I have visited them every day since I found them, wondering if one has sold.

A Public Service Annoucement From The Grocery Czar

The Minor Glue Outpost Conundrum

Over in the meadow, far to the back, past the office, hidden behind Moveable Gloves, is the glue department.

It is a two-part Department.

There is an Upper Glue:

and a Lower Glue:

Then there is the Minor Glue Outpost, in the Miscellaneous Stationary Items Aisle, which is endlessly confusing to First Time Glue Seekers:

Case Slamming

 So all these Pringles were sitting in the basement. In neat little rows. And there were... like... 3 of each flavor upstairs on the aisle one Pringle's shelf... and so every time a Pringle was actually SOLD... which didn't happen that often becuase you could HARDLY SEE THEM... someone had to haul a Pringle canister up the stairs to fill the slot.

NO MORE!!

THE PRINGLE FOREST IS FULL OF PRINGLE LIFE!!

Now, when it is time, I order the required Pringle flavor and SLAM the whole case out onto the shelf.

That's my style.

Case Slamming.

Take no prisoners!

Death To Backstock!!

The Hardware Guru Revealed

Shhhhhhh.

Do NOT disturb the HG when he is perusing hardware catalogs at The Nail Bench.

Oops. He caught me.

String Delivery

The astute observer will notice that hot sauce was involved in another coup. This time, it was I who staged the coup. In a surprise move last week, I gained control of aisle one Specialty, Mexican, and Chips. All hot sauce in aisle one was deported to its proper place on the Sauce Endcap. 

Wait 'til you see what I did to the Pringles!

The Acquisitions Staff

The Acquisitions Staff is proud to announce a

 

Bell Department Expansion

Three new bell products have been added to the classic handbell/cowbell product line.

Familiar Territory with Retirement Home

Last weekend's snowshoe.

I know it looks just like the pictures of the woods on my previous snowshoe post BUT... I know all the streams and rocks and trees and bends in this trail.

When I was teaching, I would hike up the old road behind the town graveyard every day. Once a week during my special double free period, I would go all the way up to the high meadow. I would also frequently take my class up into these woods for a hike.

The view across the high meadow last weekend.

Same view, summer 2011

I have been charmed by the ambiance of this dwelling since 2004, the first time I hiked up here.

Summer 2011

It is wired for sound! There is evidence of the old electric wires running up through the woods.

The familiar view out across the valley coming back down. We used to go sledding in the graveyard.