I went to the grocery store.
My television had been on a nonstop loop of the news showing cleared out toilet paper, disinfectant, and canned good grocery isles. Neighbors were starting to ask each other for suggestions of where to go to find some supplies so they can prepare to hunker down in their homes for a few weeks.
A few years ago everyone here was afraid that gasoline would run out and flooded all the gas stations in the neighborhood until all the stores had to close their doors due to a lack of supply. Come to find out, that was just a weekend Carolina rumor that disappeared as fast at it showed up when gas was restored that Monday. Rumors catch on here like wildfire and by the time you find out the truth -everyone in your neighborhood has already taken some sort of extreme action to protect themselves, like filing up all of their cars and all the gas cans they own to make sure they have gas when it’s all gone.
We have the same kind of mania behavior happen each time a hurricane or any kind of natural disaster threat comes or way. So I was prepared for chaos when I left the house.
The parking lot was full, there were long checkout lines and only 3 carts available in front that normally has dozens of carts. “Alright, let’s get this over with,” I said to my husband as he pulled out his phone to start checking off the list.
We quickly made it through the produce section, then the deli, and started walking towards the frozen section when we saw a crowd gathered around the poultry section.
A loud voice came from the crowd yelling,”I don’t know why all of ya’ll are surprised! Jesus told us he would show us and now it’s time!” I couldn’t tell who was yelling in the crowd but knew I didn’t want to go anywhere close to it. I stood in the isle over to avoid the crowd and sent my husband over to get the chicken breast. He came back a few minutes later shaking his head with disappointment.
“Went through all that and they ran out of chicken breast.Why do they need to stand right there? People are acting crazy.”
People walking by us had confused expressions on their faces too.
We finished our list; substituting for things that were no longer in supply. Still staying at our weekly budget because, like I said, this is nothing new. I’ll just wait until next week when the hype dies down and things are back to normal.
After we checked out, I noticed the crowd in the frozen food section was still there and would probably be until the store closes. Someone felt the spirit to preach in the grocery store (not normal) with plenty of people willing to listen.
My phone rang when we pulled into the driveway, we stopped to listed to the voice mail over the car speakers,”Good evening this is the school director, in keeping with the Governor’s order, schools beginning Monday through at least the end of this month will be closed. During this time all athletic and extracurricular activities are canceled…”
I have to go back to the grocery store today.