neighbourhood: going shopping

There was an adult bookstore on the main drag in our town. When I was a child, I was pretty bookish, so it was only natural that I'd want to go see what was in "The Book Ranch". I asked to go in every time we drove by, but mom would always change the subject. It wasn't until high school that I knew why.

Our local store used to have a huge plastic icecream above the door to advertise a particular brand and until I was about 12, I thought it was Donald Duck with his head stuck in a giant cone with just his butt sticking out.

when I was about 5-6 my father worked a part time job at a large department store weeknights. My mom would have to pick him up when the store closed, my brother and I in tow. He worked in the cash office.. the last people to leave the store... anyway, I was always afraid that he would get locked in the store and have to sleep on the beds in the linens section... plywood boxes with sheets on them! When the lights went out and he was still in there I would get hysterical!

When I was 6 or 7 years old, I heard a newcaster talking about things being bought and sold "on the black market" and I thought that meant it was an actual open-air flea market type place that had nothing but black painted tables, chairs, tents, booths and buildings. All the people buying and selling stuff in there had to wear all black clothes too. No wonder my parents looked at me and laughed when I said, "What's wrong with selling stuff in a place where everything has to be black?"

I used to think that vending machines were "vennie" machines.

This one belongs to my friend, April.

When she was little, her mom told her that they were going to Bed,Bath and Beyond (the store). April got all excited and said "REALLY? IN THAT ORDER?!"

My 5 year old sister became terribly excited while we were out shopping, and went running over to this man shouting " a man shaving a window !".
I think she made the day of the window cleaner who was using a squeegee to clean suds from the shop window.

Now I can't stop imagining hairy shop windows, that need to be regularly shaved.

I used to think there was a whole world under the escalators at the mall. I worried that I might slip through it each time that I stepped on. But, if I did, I thought maybe it won't be so bad since there is that other world under there.

I thought that outlet malls were called outlet malls because they let you out of the stores, since there werent any corridors to walk through between the stores.

i remember my sister, 17, and I going shopping with my mom when walking thru a store, my mom stopped to look at picture frames. My sister, not realising the pictures in them were just for show, asked my mom 'Why would you want to buy a photo of someone you don't know??' Everyone laughed and she hasn't lived it down to this day!

I used to believe that soda fountains were just that - a fountain that spewed soda instead of water. I was always excited to go to one, but to my disappointed, there was no literal soda fountain.

One my mom and I walked in front of this toy store and I wanted to go in and check out the toys. She told me no one that wasn't buying a toy could enter. I believed her. Then, several years after, we were looking for a present for my cousin. She entered the store and I told her that we couldn't go insede unless we were buying something. She laughed at me. Who wouldn't? I was 17!

(this was actually my friend, not me). there was a store called Caldor, and my friends cousin told her it got that name because there was a stampede of cows and one got stuck in the door. she believed that until she told me and i told her it wasnt true.

When I was little, the cashiers at the store would i guess "pretend" and tell me that when i got candy, i got it for free cuz i was so cute. So, I thought cand was free for me. Anyway, one day, I just took it without telling my mom and I got in trouble! She had this black manager guy come over and give me a "talk" about not being a little theif. It's their fault! they're the ones who told me it was free! I don't know why, but that story al ways made me REALLY mad. argh...

I used to believe that if I went on the escalators I would get sucked into the vents at the bottom. So I had to be carried on them or would find a way to avoid them all together and walk down the stairs.

I used to go grocery shopping with my Dad & ask for the most nutrition-free sugary no-chance-in-hell things, like Count Chocula cereal, etc.

Instead of saying 'no', he'd always say "Just wait, we might get it when it goes on sale."

I didn't really understand the idea of a 'sale' & just thought that the evil grocer-man was displaying these items to torture kids & never letting the 'good' cereals leave the shelves of his store.

I hated the grocery store owner's kids for years because of this misunderstanding.

Sorry kids!