Liquor in a Grocery Store???

I grew up in Florida where you could buy beer and wine in a grocery store but when I moved up to Massachusetts, it was totally different up here. No alcohol in any store other than a liquor store or a convenience store. At least I think you can buy beer in a convenience store up here. I don’t drink beer so I’m not 100% sure. But in any case, grabbing a bottle of wine at the grocery store, not gonna happen.

In fact, when I first moved up here in 1996, you couldn’t even buy alcohol at all on Sunday except on the Sundays from Thanksgiving to New Years Day That changed in 2004. Since I’m not a planner, I never remembered to make sure I had wine for Sunday.

This past week, I went into a Big Y in Springfield and lo and behold, I saw this:

Not just beer and wine! The good stuff, too. IN A GROCERY STORE! Made me **almost** want to move to Springfield.

Ridin’ for Biden

Finally got my yard sign today and it’s out there proudly displaying my support for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. I am so ready for the hell that has been the Trump administration to be over.

I’ve always been fiercely Democratic. Having grown up on the “Redneck Riviera” (aka the Florida Gulf Coast) I was raised around “conservative values.” To me, those values often meant that white folks, especially white men, had more opportunities than people of color. While I didn’t really think of it in such specific terms, I always knew that as a white female I had it much better than people of color.

After I got out of the Air Force and married an Air Force aircraft mechanic, we spent the next 15 years living in Oklahoma, Colorado and Texas. Then he retired and I went to school in Massachusetts which is where we ended up staying. I started living here full time in 1996. I used to think of Florida as home. But about 2013, I went back to Pensacola to surprise my mom for Mother’s Day. My brother introduced me to his coworkers as “This is my liberal sister I was telling you about.” As a proud liberal, I wear it like a badge of honor. But I’m not sure it was meant that way.

We also went out to a restaurant and there were a lot of “Good Ol’ Boys” and girls there. I felt totally out of place. The make up of the citizenry hadn’t changed. I had.

While I enjoyed spending time with my family, that’s when I realized that Massachusetts is my home now and I don’t really belong in the South anymore.