Oh the dreaded grocery stores. As a young child, walking around these social malls easily could be the scariest place on earth. I would rather watch a terrifying horror movie, or ride a glass elevator in the world’s tallest building (okay I take that back, my fear of heights is punching at my side telling me there's absolutely no way) than have to talk to somebody.
That's right, talk to somebody.
I was assigned a very simple task - grab a loaf of bread. We needed some bait for our next fishing trip, so my father thought it would be a great idea to drop me off and bring back a loaf of bread. No big deal right?
"Dad, can you come with me? You know this store better than I do".
I knew it was a pathetic attempt at trying to avoid going into the store.
"No son, just go in and grab a loaf real quick, I'll be right here".
So I knew it was time to hop out of the vehicle and head into the store. I've been in a grocery store before - I knew where things were... or so I thought. The journey started off okay as I headed into the produce isle thinking that bread would be around the corner, but to my surprise it wasn't.
I looked all over the produce isle double-checking areas that I've already looked at, but still no sign of bread anywhere. Time is ticking and where I thought the bread originally was is quickly becoming non-existent. I continue to walk around nearby isles and I still can't find what I'm looking for.
At this point I start to worry because I know that my father is waiting patiently outside for me to find this silly loaf of bread. I mean, how hard can it be? Bread belongs in the produce isle, right? I start heading down the freezer isles and then eventually make my way into the canned goods. I still can't find the bread.
My gut instinct tells me the bread is in the produce isle and shouldn't be anywhere else. This is where it was last time, so it must be here. Things don't change in a grocery store...
At this point time I know my father has to know something is up, so I start thinking of excuses to tell him that would sound believable. I start making my way out of the store to tell him the bad news.
"Hey dad, I looked around and I couldn't find any bread. Looks like they are out."
Yeah definitely convinced him. I got this.
"They are out of bread? Really? A grocery store without bread? Lets go take a look."
At that moment I actually believed myself at the possibility that the store had no bread. I mean, c’mon, things go out of stock - bread could be one of them. That kind of thing is common, I mean peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, who doesn't love them?
So we head into the store together and my father heads to the area where I thought the bread was. He looks around, and instead of actually finding it, he tells me to go up to one of the employees and ask them where the bread is.
Ask someone for bread, are you serious?
There's no bread! So I kept telling myself. Even if there was bread, it's such a silly thing to ask for help. Bread should be positioned in an area where it's obvious.
So I of course start getting really nervous and my father sees that I'm too scared to go talk to someone, so he goes up to a fellow employee and asks them where the bread is. The employee guides us to the new location for the bread and silly enough, it's in the same area.
I could have looked harder, but to be honest when you are looking at the ground 90% of the time, it's rather difficult to see what's ahead of you. I look down because it's a challenge to make eye contact with people. It's a means of starting a conversation - a conversation that I had no idea how to start, continue, or finish.
So we grab the bread, head to checkout and then make our way back into the vehicle to head out to our fishing trip. Fishing is so much simpler than having to buy bread; there you get to be alone, a rod, reel, and hopefully the battle of an awesomely sized fish. You don't even have to talk to people, and if conversation does arise, it's usually about the fish you just caught or someone asking you how many fish you caught for the day.
With fishing you can just smile, enjoy the battles, and have a great time - as long as you are with someone you know.