Saturday Rituals

Today would have been my mom’s 75th birthday and I of course am thinking a lot about her and missing her so much. We started our Saturday rituals with Ma around 2002 when my daughter Sydney was seven years old and my daughter Mallory was four that spanned over fifteen years. Every Saturday we would meet pick her up and spend the day doing usually one of three things, all of which she loved very much. We would choose our option for the day based upon where we had gone the week before, either Sam’s Club, a trip to Marc’s or a trip to the Amish grocery store – Planktown located near the small village of Shiloh, Ohio.

My mom loved going to Sam’s Club, she got such a kick out of the free food samples and finding that one purchase she felt she couldn’t possibly pass up – though it was usually enough for several months she’d buy it anyway. A day at Sam’s would always be capped off by a stop to the snack bar where we would all enjoy a hot dog combo, in those days for $1.50. A drink of choice and those big delicious Nathan’s hot dogs smothered in mustard and ketchup. When we have hot dogs at home, it’s always the West Virginia way with chili, slaw, onions and mustard – but for a change of pace we enjoyed our Sam’s hot dog combos. I can’t remember how many of those combo’s I’ve eaten sitting with my daughters and mother in a warehouse of items we never bought very much of, making memories. After her death it took me several months before I could even enter a Sam’s and when I finally did, Ma was right there along-side me eyeing the aisles and smelling out the samples.
Marc’s is a discount drugstore-and-grocery chain, with stores in northern and central Ohio. Marc’s are highly popular in the metro Cleveland area and I’ve even seen them as far south as Westerville in Ohio. But for the most part it’s a big Cleveland thing. Over the years we tried to visit as many locations as we possibly could – it seems like every suburb and town has one, except for Norwalk and Sandusky of course! In the end, the Elyria location was deemed her favorite and it was also the closest to us. Ma would fill her cart to the brim always amazed at the savings she was getting! Each and every trip my girls insisted that they would shop with Grandma. The front of the store is more like a cheaper Big Lots, everything is much cheaper however than Big Lots. Once I would catch up with the trio of grandma and granddaughters I would see that most of her buggy was filled with items that Syd and Mal insisted they couldn’t live without and knew Grandma would buy. Of course arguing with my mother when it came to those two girls was always a losing battle. I don’t go to Marc’s anymore, my girls are away at college and Ma is gone so I really avoid going there. I did stop at the Great Northern store in December when I was on my way to pick Mal up at the airport and needed to waste some time. Again Ma was right there with me, I even purchased a plastic O-H-I-O container for storing buckeyes (the candy) in, simply because I could hear her telling me that Mal would like it (and she did!), and at that price…what a bargain…if you don’t get it, I’m going to, I heard her telling me, so it was my only purchase at Marc’s that day.
Our last Saturday ritual was Planktown, an Amish grocer that has a meat and cheese counter that must be or feels like its fifty feet long. Many times I remember getting our “take a” numbers and we would like in the 90’s and the number being called was in the 40’s. Planktown was probably my mom’s favorite of all the places we would go, the store sells everything and most of it in bulk to pass on the savings to the customer. She would always go there around the holidays to stock up on her baking supplies and in the summer, her canning supplies. A visit to Planktown would mean a picnic lunch in a park on the way home, we would buy a loaf of bread, condiments, lunch meats and snacks that we would take to a park and make lunch with. I would always buy the ingredients for macaroni and cheese on our Planktown visits, another much requested dish at our house.
So, whether it be a simple hot dog , a plastic container or the makings for a simple dish , cherish all the memories you make with family. I know I do! I miss our Saturday rituals.
Happy Heavenly Birthday Ma!

Go now and enjoy my recipe for homemade Macaroni and Cheese.