Have you ever been to BJ's

Berkley and Johnson, to be exact. It's similar to Costco in a lot of ways and in a lot of ways different. You need to be a member. The fee for membership is made up over the year in savings on things like two tons of catfood, 1,000 pounds of ground turkey, etc. The difference between the two is at BJ's there are more human sized packages available.

Our friend from Ossining calls it the Honey I Shrunk the Kids store. She got that from watching a young girl try to manoeuvre a huge box of Cherios into her mother's cart.

This is a suburban experience. When I lived in the big cities, you bought what you could carry back to your apartment. If you were going for a lot, you took your folding shopping cart and hooked it the front of the stores. I noticed there are no hooks in suburban stores. You take your cart to the car.

When I miss the simplicity of apartment living, usually this is when I am mowing the lawn or shoveling snow, the story of the bum on the park bench comes to mind. If you've heard it before, read it again.

There was a bum who slept each night on park bench across the street from a swanky high rise. A woman who lived in the high rise, who spent more in a week on her poodle than the bum spent in a year on food, walked by the bench each evening when she went out to walk her dog. The dog would always stop by the bum to be pet. The lady and the bum who exchange pleasantries and each would go to their designated corners.

On one very cold winter day, the lady noticed how the bum was shivering, with only crumpled newspapers between his thin cloth coat and his skin. In a sudden and uncharacteristic surge of charity, she invited him to come up to her apartment to spend the night in the guest room. He thanked her and took her up on the invitation.

The next morning when she awoke, the lady looked out on the park and noticed the bum was back on the bench, wrapped in cardboard. She checked her apartment to make sure nothing was stolen. Then she wrapped herself in furs and took the poodle out for a walk.

When the came up to the bum she enquired why he left. He said, "When I sleep on this bench, I dream of living in the lap of luxury and sleep soundly. When I was in you soft and warm bed, all I could dream about was sleeping on a cold hard park bench. I couldn't stay asleep until I came back out here."

Is there a moral here? I suppose the wise saying, as a thing is viewed, so it appears would apply.
=30=