Ru conducts an anthropological study
Jan. 29th, 2010 05:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ruAs you may have heard, there's some snow heading our way in the south, if it's hasn't already arrived (here, it hasn't). The amount has been touted as anywhere from ten inches to just making life soggy for a while. Although as far as everyone is concerned, there's a veritable snowtastrophe upon us, whereby we're all gonna die horrible frosty deaths, either from straight freezing, or from skittering all to our deaths on the road.
To be honest, I've gotten used to hearing shrieks of how we're all gonna be buried up to our eyelashes in snow, only to have just a bit of rain in the end. People have a tendency to overreact here, considering we're all southern belles and gentlemen who are more accustomed to sweltering heat than feet of snow. If my barometer-like head is indicator, there's SOMETHING on the way, though what exactly what remains to be seen.
But anyway, overreaction. It happens a lot here. All the sidewalks are salted/rocked/kitty littered within an inch of their lives, and after all the salting, the roads are WHITE, despite the fact that we haven't gotten any snow yet. But it's not just the municipality going nuts. Your average person goes a little crazy here too, half-expecting we'll be buried until spring. I'm not entirely sure why, but whenever the forecast calls for snow, everyone immediately has to run out and buy eggs, milk, and bread. And primarily those three things. You'd half expect everyone gets a subconscious command to make french toast, or something.
I ended up being amongst the grocery goers today, since there were a few things I needed and weren't able to get yesterday. This ended up being an interesting study in anthropology. First off, the supermarket was PACKED. We're talking Christmas/Thanksgiving packed. Everybody was there grabbing things, mainly the aforementioned eggs/milk/bread combination. Heck, they were completely out of your standard dozen-eggs carton. However, I found it very interesting to see what else was popular. Some things made sense, like firewood and bottled water. In other cases, what was being bought defied reason a little, like the woman whose front cart was chock full of collard greens. And in other other cases, reason was defied initially, but then made sense once you thought about it.
--Cheese, particularly shredded cheese. The cheese was practically picked over.
--Beer. I saw a guy coming out with two frozen pizzas and two CASES of beer. I sincerely hope that he has someone to share them with.
--Cookies. There was one woman, with her two girls, kneeling, with her arm completely in the shelf, I presume trying to get the last bag of Chips Ahoy. Cookies must be HAD.
--Popcorn. I'm sure there could be a correlation made between those who bought popcorn, and those who stood in the crazy long line for the DVD rental-o-matic.
--Kidney beans. Between them and the cheese, I think that perhaps while some people feel the need to make french toast, others need to make chili.
--Sour cream. Possibly also for the chili.
--Lubricant. Interestingly, condoms weren't anywhere near as popular. I suspect we should anticipate a small baby boom come late October/early November.
On a slight side note, I see now why oranges are so popular as a winter fruit, besides the fact that they ripen in the winter. It was really nice and warming to come in from a downright cold and dismal day, and see piles and piles of bright, happy oranges, like little pieces of sun. Mmm, oranges. <3
Thus endeth my anthropological adventure for today.
To be honest, I've gotten used to hearing shrieks of how we're all gonna be buried up to our eyelashes in snow, only to have just a bit of rain in the end. People have a tendency to overreact here, considering we're all southern belles and gentlemen who are more accustomed to sweltering heat than feet of snow. If my barometer-like head is indicator, there's SOMETHING on the way, though what exactly what remains to be seen.
But anyway, overreaction. It happens a lot here. All the sidewalks are salted/rocked/kitty littered within an inch of their lives, and after all the salting, the roads are WHITE, despite the fact that we haven't gotten any snow yet. But it's not just the municipality going nuts. Your average person goes a little crazy here too, half-expecting we'll be buried until spring. I'm not entirely sure why, but whenever the forecast calls for snow, everyone immediately has to run out and buy eggs, milk, and bread. And primarily those three things. You'd half expect everyone gets a subconscious command to make french toast, or something.
I ended up being amongst the grocery goers today, since there were a few things I needed and weren't able to get yesterday. This ended up being an interesting study in anthropology. First off, the supermarket was PACKED. We're talking Christmas/Thanksgiving packed. Everybody was there grabbing things, mainly the aforementioned eggs/milk/bread combination. Heck, they were completely out of your standard dozen-eggs carton. However, I found it very interesting to see what else was popular. Some things made sense, like firewood and bottled water. In other cases, what was being bought defied reason a little, like the woman whose front cart was chock full of collard greens. And in other other cases, reason was defied initially, but then made sense once you thought about it.
--Cheese, particularly shredded cheese. The cheese was practically picked over.
--Beer. I saw a guy coming out with two frozen pizzas and two CASES of beer. I sincerely hope that he has someone to share them with.
--Cookies. There was one woman, with her two girls, kneeling, with her arm completely in the shelf, I presume trying to get the last bag of Chips Ahoy. Cookies must be HAD.
--Popcorn. I'm sure there could be a correlation made between those who bought popcorn, and those who stood in the crazy long line for the DVD rental-o-matic.
--Kidney beans. Between them and the cheese, I think that perhaps while some people feel the need to make french toast, others need to make chili.
--Sour cream. Possibly also for the chili.
--Lubricant. Interestingly, condoms weren't anywhere near as popular. I suspect we should anticipate a small baby boom come late October/early November.
On a slight side note, I see now why oranges are so popular as a winter fruit, besides the fact that they ripen in the winter. It was really nice and warming to come in from a downright cold and dismal day, and see piles and piles of bright, happy oranges, like little pieces of sun. Mmm, oranges. <3
Thus endeth my anthropological adventure for today.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-30 01:33 am (UTC)"I have four-wheel drive! I can drive in snow!"
Yes, you can. You just can't STOP, that's the only real problem...
(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-30 04:24 am (UTC)snow's not a big deal, even a foot of snow. last year i drove through terrible weather with a foot of unplowed snow on the ground and came through just fine. the people who live in colder weather just giggle at people who freak at snowy weather! it's funny b/c we're just used to it...espeically those even further north. all you do is drive slower and give yourself more time to stop and more distance between yourself and everything else. that's all.
as for 4-wheel drive...not meant for snow...which is funny. people here do the same things with their stupid SUVs driven by stupid people who shouldn't be driving them.