Change isn’t always different

I have heard a saying that goes something like, “the more things change, the more they stay the same.”

There was a time when I would be given a handwritten note and told to place it in the silver box out by the sidewalk. The next day the milkman, and yes, it was always a man, would put milk, butter or whatever else we requested into the box. Those silver boxes disappeared long ago.

When we moved to the farm our milk came from the grocery store or from our own cows. The milkman was replaced by the bread man. Again, it was always a man, never a woman. The bread man brought bread, rolls and anything that was bread-related. In the summer he also brought watermelons and cantaloupes along with other produce he grew in his garden that we didn’t grow in ours.

He, too, vanished with time.

For many years we went to the grocery store, the meat market and the bakery for food. Once a year we traded a half a steer for half a hog for our main source of pork. People who asked that they be allowed to hunt on our property provided us with rabbits and quail. We grew our own chickens, ducks and beef. Even that changed. The time came when the only meat we bought was wrapped in plastic. All our food came from the grocery store or our own garden.

Now food stores offer to pick up our groceries and bring them to us. I have yet to try this. This is partly because I never put everything on my list that we are out of. It is only when I see a product on an almost bare shelf that I am reminded that I should pick some up.

Also, I view shopping as a social thing. A long time ago I was shopping and got behind a lady with a boy who looked to be between the ages of 15 and 21. I got the feeling he was either an exchange student or a foster child.

At any rate, they were blocking the spaghetti and I asked them to grab a box for me. They did. As it happened, we kept running into each other throughout the store. The lady told the boy that if you passed someone four times in a store that meant that you were friends. He gave her a look that said he wasn’t sure if he was supposed to believe her or not. We exchanged names. She got to the register ahead of me. She called out my name and said goodbye as she made her way to the parking lot.

You can’t get a story like that from a delivery service.

I can see where a delivery service might be the perfect way to acquire groceries or other necessities without having to go out when you have small children in tow, you are under the weather or have car trouble. I am sure that the recent pandemic helped promote a safer way to get needed items. One of our nieces used delivery services exclusively during the recent pandemic. I assume many of her peers did the same.

One of the services that I really miss is a newspaper carrier. We get two newspapers, both of them a day late. I miss being able to read the morning paper in the morning. Like many other businesses these days, there is a lack of applicants for the job. I can’t blame them. I don’t like going out in inclement weather to walk all over creation for low pay. Still, I miss the way things used to be.

We may not have silver boxes out by the sidewalk, but we can have purchases delivered to us whenever we need to. Maybe things aren’t so different after all.