I never feel quite so much like a minority as when I'm shopping at Whole Foods or some other "crunchy munchy" place. The feeling begins in the parking lot, as we maneuver around all the Volvos and hybrids to find a slot. And it continues through the checkout, where we're bombarded with magazines featuring cover photos of the Dalai Lama (but, as I told Mrs Yeoman Farmer, those magazines sure beat Cosmopolitan and the National Enquirer.) Even the bulletin board near the restrooms is covered with ads promoting "transcendental meditation," yoga, and so forth.
Struggling to come up with an analogy, I suggested to MYF that "this must be how liberals feel when they browse through a gun shop."
MYF replied, "Except liberals don't own guns."
Oh, yes they do, I explained. (And not just Carl Rowan.) In fact, I'd hazzard a guess that as many liberals own guns as conservatives shop at Whole Foods.
Anyway, MYF has been concerned about our kids reading some of the more outlandish bumper stickers displayed on cars in the Whole Foods parking lot, so she's asked the kids not to look at any of them. This led to the following exchange recently between eleven year old Homeschooled Farm Boy (HFB) and eight year old Homeschooled Farm Girl (HFG):
HFB: Remember, we're not supposed to read the bumper stickers.
HFG: Why not? What's so bad about them?
HFB (matter-of-factly): Because the people here are wacked. [PARENTS: note that children are listening closely and will mimick the words you choose].
HFG: But why?
HFB (authoratitively, in his most adult tone): Because this is Ann Arbor.
4 comments:
Good to see you commenting at Dawn Patrol, Yeoman. Here is some sound financial advice with which I'm sure you will agree. If I ever get out of NoVA, I'm coming your way -- 10-20 acres w/wooded lot should do! Cheers
Oh ... my. That is so funny, and so true.
Except we try to avoid that Whole Foods Market if we can (we refer to it as "Whole Paycheck" :) ), because of the pain of parking.
You know that Plum Market is open now? That would be closer to you by quite a bit. We haven't made it there yet, so I don't know if the prices are better.
I suspect the bumper stickers are going to be the same, though.
peace,
I have the same problem, only worse at the food co-op we shop at in Olympia, WA. The problem there is the local college, Evergreen State, which is know up and down the West coast as a refuge for homosexuals. So not only are our fellow co-op members liberals, they are also 30-40% gay. With books on the shelves titled "A**l Pleasure and Health", and magazines in the rack like "Yellow Silk, the Journal of Erotic Art", not to mention the bulletin boards, we've just given up taking the kids under 15 who can read into the place at all.
Danby -
I'm a Seattle native, and my sister attended Evergreen, so I know exactly what you're talking about. Although she and I could not be farther apart culturally and politically, we've found common ground on the natural foods front. We connect more now than we ever did. And that's what I find most remarkable about this movement.
Zach - Thanks for the word about Plum Market. We'll check it out. However, because we're up near Lansing, neither of their locations looks any closer to us than Whole Paycheck is.
Post a Comment