HOW I SEE IT: Life before Martin’s: How did I survive?

Having lived in the area for 18 years now, I can’t tell you how excited I was when I heard about Martin’s coming to Culpeper.

I can now chuckle at my experiences shopping in both Culpeper and Orange, but at the time it was anything but funny. It seemed amazing to me that in Culpeper, long declared one of the fastest-growing communities in Virginia, supermarket shopping could be such a frustrating experience, and has continued to be ever since.

Once, I asked where the chutney could be found; the guy looked at me as if I was from Mars. He then proceeded to go look up what chutney was (and no, he couldn’t spell it).

On another occasion, in search of horseradish, the reply was, “We get a lot of requests for that, but we don’t carry it.”

OK, so, granted, maybe chutney and horseradish aren’t the staples of life, but how about onion soup mix? In one store I shopped at this year, the only onion soup mix carried expired in 2007. The salad dressing expired two months ago, the cans of beans eight months ago, and the carrots? Fresh carrots in the produce department?

They expired last week.

I guess that explained why they were really slimy.
And don’t forget the ambiance. Wasn’t cigarette smoking outlawed in grocery stores eons ago? I guess not if you live around here — no one seemed to mind (except me).

Earlier this summer one would have thought I was in a pet store, when the guy in front of me had a snake draped around his neck. Surely the management will be right over to address this.

Address it? Well, they all admired the snake for quite some time, while I impatiently hopped back and forth trying to meet a deadline and hoping the snake didn’t decide to slither in my direction.

Finally, after 18 long years, we have a real grocery store. My urban friends think I’m nuts, making such a big deal. They have no idea how depressing it has been to food shop around here.

My Mother’s Day present was to sit in the parking lot of Martin’s-to-be and drool. Martin’s has not let me down.

Like a kid in the candy store, I strolled up and down the aisles, grinning from ear to ear.

What a wonderful place! My life is complete. If you see a middle-aged lady dancing a jig in the aisles, say hi!