The Essentials

VIEWPOINT

By RALPH HARDIN

Evening Times Editor

Like many of you, I saw the weather forecast for this week and headed out Tuesday to stock up on enough of the standard food items that one needs to survive while hunkered down for a goof old southern winter apocalypse (AKA any time there’s even a chance of some accumulation of frozen precipitiation).

Luckily, we’re all good on eggs, so I didn’t have to take out a personal loan to buy any. Side note: I saw a thing on Facebook that said, “Y’all, we’re dyeing potatoes this Easter,” and as a thrifty fellow, I felt that.

But we did need milk and bread. I mean, that’s the first rule of surviving ice and snow armageddon: Be sure you have milk and bread. I personally need cereal to go with the milk and peanut butter to go with the bread, but your mileage may vary when it comes to weathering the deep freezes we seem to get

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every February. My wife, for example, specifically requested a box of macaroni & cheese and a can of purplehulled peas for the duration.

Chili is also requisite polar vortex dining, so I got all the fixin’s for that too.

I was not alone at the Walmart Neighborhood Market. Plenty of other folks had the same idea. Fortunately, the store shelves were well stocked, so we didn’t have to fight over essentials like Black Friday. I guess it was still pretty early in the day, so those after-work shoppers might be in for a rude awakening.

Of course, it being me, you can’t have a shopping trip without a misadventure, and sure enough, I forgot the purple- hulled peas. Fortunately, I have to drive past Marion Marketplace to get home so I stopped in there and picked up a can. There were plenty of other folks stocking up there too — including my Dad.

In addition to his bread and milk, he had the makings for a chocolate pie (which I’m sure my Mom will be making). I guess it really does vary from person to person what “essential” is. And now I want pie…