WHERE OH WHERE IS THE BAG BOY??

Standing in line at the big Super Store, my groceries being conveyed through the unseeing eye of the cashier who has little to do other than scan the various food stuffs, and trying, unsuccessfully, to bag my groceries myself before they become piled up so high they fall off the conveyor belt.....well, you get the picture. Grocery shopping ain't what it used to be. Long line ups, grocery carts piled sky high as shoppers try to fill their cupboards and freezers to last into the next decade. Whoa. Back up just a minute. How did that happen? How did the cozy little A & P Grocery Store morph itself into this giant monstrosity of a store that sells everything from antacids to zippers and all the food stuffs in between? Where is the smiling friendly face of the cashier who actually picked up your grocery items, one by one, looked for the little white sticker that showed the price and punched it, manually, into her cash register?

Even more demanding of an answer...where is the bag boy? You know. The little high school kid who stood next to the cashier and asked if you wanted plastic or paper. Nope. Retract that. Let's go back before that when there was no question. It WAS paper. Those lovely big paper bags that held so many groceries you wouldn't get today's young shopper to even comprehend it; made of finest Kraft paper and those serrated edges on the top. Clean, fresh, thick and without the possibility of anything falling through the bottom and breaking on the way home. Substantial enough they sat upright in the trunk of your car and when you got home every ear of corn, every can of Campbells Soup and every last jar of instant coffee was right where that bag boy had put it - in the bag. It wasn't strewn all over your trunk, it wasn't spilling and rolling around your back seat, it was where it should be. In the bag.

That boy, so polite, his oh so short hair cut and button down collar symbolizing his goodness, calling you ma'am even though you were barely five years older than he, packing your groceries just so in that solid paper bag, smiling at you the entire while. He never asked you to pay for those bags, he didn't make you guess how many bags you would require to make sure you paid for them up front. The cashier didn't try to frazzle him by shooting the groceries past him so quickly he was all fumble fingered and squashed your butter. It was a smooth operation, cashier handing one item at a time to the bag boy, both of them looking AT you while you stood there doing nothing, and the bag boy placing each item carefully and upright in that paper bag.



It didn't stop there either. Oh no. That boy then carried your groceries to your car - yes, that's right - carried your groceries to your car. He politely inquired whether you wanted them in the trunk or in the back seat and placed them ever so carefully exactly where you wished. As he quietly refused your .10 cent tip, quoting the store policy, he rushed back into the store, his dazzling smile ready to beam upon the next lucky shopper. Oh my, how I miss that boy.