I begged for the box
Jul. 11th, 2012 08:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
susandennisI am the product of a Leave it to Beaver family of the 50s. My parents stayed married to each other until they died more than 50 years later. I had two full sets of Grandparents until I was in my 20s. I had one Grandmother who was The World's Best Grandmother.
We didn't get to see her much because we never lived in the same town but every time we did see her it was magical. She had great toys, cereal bolls with pictures at the bottom, a candy dish and she took us on adventures. Once, when the city got new air conditioned buses, we all got on one and rode it the whole circuit. It was the adventure of a lifetime.
But one of my most vivid and cherished memories of Grandma was her grocery store.
Grandma's grocery - IGA - was only about 3 blocks from her house. Just inside the front door was a big black box. Inside the box was a bench for 2 or 3 very small children. And a black curtain closed off the entrance and made it very dark inside. We'd scramble in, close the curtain, and beg Grandma to shop s l o w l y...
The box was a movie theater!! But the very best kind. It showed nothing but cartoons.
In those days, when you went to the movies, you didn't have dancing pop corn or 82 boring trailers or 30 minutes of advertising for bad TV shows.... you got newsreels and a cartoon. And sometimes, if you were lucky ... two cartoons. Bugs Bunny, Roadrunner.... the classics.
But the IGA Black Box didn't even make you sit through the boring news or even a long movie - it was nothing BUT cartoons. I loved that box.
It always seemed like Grandma was the fastest grocery shopper on the planet. There was never enough time in the black box.
As I think back on it now, I cannot imagine anyone shoving their kids into a box to watch something they, could not preview in a place where they could not see them. For starters, it would prevent them from annoying other shoppers. But also, of course, it would be a kid snatcher's honey pot.
I treasure and love that I grew up when I did. I love having the history and the experience. But I love being here and now more. I have not the slightest desire to bring back the good old days. But I do feel the magic of that black box every time I enter a grocery store even now.
We didn't get to see her much because we never lived in the same town but every time we did see her it was magical. She had great toys, cereal bolls with pictures at the bottom, a candy dish and she took us on adventures. Once, when the city got new air conditioned buses, we all got on one and rode it the whole circuit. It was the adventure of a lifetime.
But one of my most vivid and cherished memories of Grandma was her grocery store.
Grandma's grocery - IGA - was only about 3 blocks from her house. Just inside the front door was a big black box. Inside the box was a bench for 2 or 3 very small children. And a black curtain closed off the entrance and made it very dark inside. We'd scramble in, close the curtain, and beg Grandma to shop s l o w l y...
The box was a movie theater!! But the very best kind. It showed nothing but cartoons.
In those days, when you went to the movies, you didn't have dancing pop corn or 82 boring trailers or 30 minutes of advertising for bad TV shows.... you got newsreels and a cartoon. And sometimes, if you were lucky ... two cartoons. Bugs Bunny, Roadrunner.... the classics.
But the IGA Black Box didn't even make you sit through the boring news or even a long movie - it was nothing BUT cartoons. I loved that box.
It always seemed like Grandma was the fastest grocery shopper on the planet. There was never enough time in the black box.
As I think back on it now, I cannot imagine anyone shoving their kids into a box to watch something they, could not preview in a place where they could not see them. For starters, it would prevent them from annoying other shoppers. But also, of course, it would be a kid snatcher's honey pot.
I treasure and love that I grew up when I did. I love having the history and the experience. But I love being here and now more. I have not the slightest desire to bring back the good old days. But I do feel the magic of that black box every time I enter a grocery store even now.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-07-11 04:16 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-07-11 04:23 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-07-11 04:26 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-07-11 04:29 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-07-12 07:30 pm (UTC)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Polizzi
http://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/esmagazine/alex-polizzi-a-most-unlikely-sex-bomb-7309946.html
;-)
(no subject)
Date: 2012-07-11 09:16 pm (UTC)I love the grocery store black box story! We never had anything like that and your descriptive puts me right there.
I anxiously look for your posts every day. I can't wait to see what you write about next.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-07-11 09:31 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-07-11 10:35 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-07-14 10:17 pm (UTC)And, honestly, in those days who would dare snatch a kid from one? They were being watched by the clerk, and the kid's family likely *knew* the clerk and vice versa. :P