Boxed Groceries

I thought of my Dad today.  I was at Aldi's packing up my groceries in my reusable bags and I saw a man waiting for his wife to get through the checkout,  two boxes in hand.  It brought back memories of tagging along on shopping trips with my parents. We would enter the store and my dad would head for the produce department to pick out appropriate boxes-fruit or banana for carrying the food home. He must have made friends with the produce people because he never had to argue with them to get the boxes.  Then he would head for the meat department and pick out the best cuts of meat they could afford while my mother selected everything else. I'm convinced that my mother could have done this as well but they had an unwritten understanding and division of labor.  Packing groceries in our own bags or boxes that we scrounge from the store isn't out of place or odd today but back when I was a kid and especially into my teen years I have to admit, it was embarrassing. Sam Boyd had a particular way he packed groceries and he didn't want anyone messing with the system! He turn many a bewildered bag boy away. If I'd only known back then what I know now, that my dad was way ahead of his time, I would have been proud not embarrassed. Those boxes came home and were used to pack me up for college, cart treats and baked goods to my sister's home far away, and store things in closets. The original Green Shopper! Like they say-Who knew!