Survival Skills

Locals have learned certain tourist survival skills and pay the consequences when they do not abide by them. One of them is to never shop on a Sunday morning in the local supermarket which I made the mistake of doing. Actually anytime during the summer is a challenge but Sundays are the worst. Weekly renters usually arrive either late Saturday or early Sunday and all flock to the supermarket to start their week off.

Our market is small and meets the the locals' needs barely in winter though you will run into quite a few of us in the bigger stores 25 miles away on weekends. But in the summer it becomes impossible to move down the crowded aisles as people wander aimlessly trying to find items they need and probably don't exist in our store.

Shopping becomes a family experience and so you now have all these kids running around adding to the confusion. Cell phones abound as people loudly carry on their conversations or talk to others in their parties mere aisles away.

I had my first traffic jam just trying to get into the store- just like the tourists who stop and talk in the middle of the street to their friends on the sidewalk, this woman was talking to her son trying to coordinate what they were going to do after shopping. She had to do this just inside the doorway and could not move a few feet in so others could get by her.

Being 4 deep in the waiting line, I remarked that people should go around her and I got a look like I was oh so rude. This also happens in the lines at the Farmers Market- but that story is for another day.

So I became totally un-Maine like and shouted- hey move in so others can get by- the woman just looked at me and the long line of people waiting to get in and continued talking. She then moved her cart about a foot so we could squeeze by.

Imagine standing at turnstyle in the subway in NY or Boston just as you are starting to go through and begin a conversation with the person behind you and not go through until your conversation is finished. You might get away with your life intact! It continues to amaze me how people leave their common sense behind while on vacation.