Welcome cats and kittens to month four of my thematic blog. When I first decided to start this craziness I had someone ask me if I would actually keep up with this project since I had had many great ideas before that never came to fruition. In all fairness, she was correct, I have great ideas all the time I never stick with but, at the end of this month, I will mark a quarter of a year doing this. It is impressive for me.
So back to point, February’s theme is the super wal-mart. I know that technically wal-mart is a proper noun and therefore should be capitalized but this is my blog and I do what I want. Anyway, wal-mart has been a big part of my life since I was a small girl in Louisiana. I think wal-mart is an important part of any Southerner’s life and every single southern woman shops at the wal-mart. It is one of the great equalizers. It is also one of my most fertile grounds for writing. Every single time I go to the super wal-mart I see something or think of something that I should write about. I don’t know if the wal-marts I go to are that entertaining or if I am just that inspired by the insanity.
My earliest blogs where very wal-mart influenced and for awhile there I was pretty sure all I had to write about was stuff that happened at the wal-mart. I decided that if I ever wrote a book about my early blogging experiences I would title it “So I was at the Super Wal-mart Today.” I also send Tina a text from wal-mart almost every single time I go. I think this is why she requested wal-mart as a theme.
I think any non-Southerners will be befuddled at first by my blogs this month since the north has yet to be fully invaded by the wal-mart. I urge you to read this like a cultural artifact. Life really is different down here and our love-hate relationship with Sam Walton’s brain child gone wrong is as deeply ingrained as white gravy and pick-up trucks. If you are a rural family, Sunday meant Jesus, ice cream, and wal-mart and those not so rural families normally have a reason to go many times a week. It is part of who we are.
I have two conditions that have to be met before I will move anywhere: 1, is it within two hours of the nearest major airport and 2, is it within a ten minute drive of the nearest wal-mart. If you have to drive more than 10 minutes to get to wal-mart then you live too damn far away from civilization. I also remember when I was a little girl waiting for my dad to get out of the bathroom and looking at a map of all of the locations of wal-marts and noticing that there were entire states without one. I couldn’t imagine a world without wal-mart. This month I pay tribute to that institution that has been with me my entire life.
Geeks a Geeking