Twenty-Twenty-five

The date of our New Year sounds like the price of a week’s supply of groceries from the Piggly Wiggly where my mother shopped for the Proctor family. This amount would have filled three or even four large bags and taken to her car in a buggy pushed by a young boy. She would have been gracious and tipped him an amount from a dime up to a quarter. In the New Year of 2025, if I only spend $20.25, I will carry to my car several items probably in one large grocery bags. Do you agree? I remember well when a supermarket replaced the old Sims store that had a counter & clerks to wait on you. Everyone loved shopping at the supermarket with the italic name on front of the store. It was a new experience to choose your item from shelf, put in a buggy, and push it to get in line at the register. Tips were eliminated. In the beginning. In fun we gave a joke name to this classy new store. The Piggly Wiggly became the Hoggly Woggly. This was quite silly but fun in our own sense of humor. The new store also brought a new family to Swainsboro. Mr. Gillis from Soperton came to be the manager. Many who are reading about the Piggly Wiggly were classmates and friends of his daughter, Betty Gillis. She graduated from SHS and joined Frances Willis Powell and I when we went to Atlanta to attend Atlanta Division of University of Georgia. The supermarkets brought on a controversary that continues. “Do you put your groceries into a buggy or a cart?” I say buggy. Also, I mash not push a button. You can take the girl out of Georgia, but you cannot take Georgia out of the girl. I proudly say. To all of Emanuel County: May 2025 be the best of all years. Write to Shirley at [email protected].

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