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LIDL: Items

bgibson135

I don’t shop at LIDL very often, but I was in today to buy Smoked Oysters. They have a good price on cans of these. But today as I was looking down several isles, I came across other items that I purchased: Hatfield Pre-Sliced Ham, NIXE Smoked Oysters, raw carrots, fresh raspberries and fresh blackberries. *Actually, I now shop at LIDL and Aldi’s quite often.

As I was standing at the register to check out, a manager was working on something at the register, the clerk that would wait on me was standing back watching what was going on.

There was a woman standing behind me and at some point she struck up a conversation, asking me if the smoked oysters were for my Valentine. I told her I didn’t have a Valentine and that they were for me.

I noted that she had a couple of large Avocados (not an innuendo about her breast, but the big green ones, not Haas), and a couple of other items. I asked her if she liked hummus, and she responded, “yes.” I told her that I like the smoked oysters with my hummus. She thought about going back to get some smoked oysters for herself, but then thought otherwise because of the line of other customers behind her.

Before I went shopping, I had been writing about wanting to buy the Hatfield Ham again to see if the flavor made a difference in my “Bill McMuffin.” But, I wasn’t even thinking about looking to see if LIDL sold this brand of ham. The only grocery chain that I knew did sell Hatfield, was Harris Teeter. And, I also still had some unfrozen ham in my fridge and the remainder of that ham in my freezer, so it wasn’t actually time to buy more ham. Still, I am at an age where if “it” doesn’t please me, I had better make a change quickly, to something that does.

[NOTE]: Well, I tried another “Bill McMuffin” with the Hatfield Ham I bought yesterday. I did like the ham better than what I’ve been using, but this time I think I should only microwave 1 egg, and not 2 and use only one slice of cheese, split between the two halves of muffin.[end NOTE]

I saw some fresh raspberries and nearby fresh blackberries, both at what seemed to be a good price. I’ve been pureeing these fruits to eat with my Greek Gods Plain Yogurt. I was also thinking that I would have to go somewhere else to buy carrots, but then I saw a bag of large carrots (2 lbs.). The carrots were large, not the bag.

Just before I went to the register, I picked up a couple of cans of the NIXE Smoked Oysters.

  • Soft Apricots – Alesto
    • These were the softest dried apricots I’ve ever eaten. I bought a second bag, but haven’t been eating them very often.
  • Camembert Cheese
  • Carrots (good price on 2 lbs. package & good looking carrots.
  • Fruit (fresh Blackberries/Raspberries)
    • Earlier in the season they had very good prices on blackberries & raspberries.
  • Green Beans
  • Hatfield Pre-Sliced Ham
    • I enjoyed this fresh ham. It made delicious Bill McMuffins, but I seem to recall looking at the calories/fat/sodium and haven’t bought any since. *I originally bought this on sale at HT, but then couldn’t get it again there and then saw it at LIDL.
  • Hillshire Farms Beef Polska Kielbasa (Walmart also)
  • Milk 2% (cheap)
    • They had fantastic milk prices earlier in the year, but have gone up, but still a good price.
  • Smoked Oysters
    • Both LIDL and Aldi’s have good prices on smoked oysters, but I’ve sort of not been wanting them lately.

This is now the LIDL in Fayetteville, North Carolina.

You know what still worries me? I looked pretty intently at the woman’s items she had placed on the conveyor belt behind me. I can visualize the two large green avocados, and there was something above those, and there was something below them, but I can’t visualize anything but those two avocados, which I think I almost touched, or at least reached out in pointing to them during our short conversation.

The above, “forgetting something” just reminded me of a time long ago, when I was attending college at UNC-Chapel Hill. One Saturday, during the fall, there was a football game at Kenan Stadium. I think we were playing Duke. In fact, it was my Freshman Year (1972), because I went to the game with a small group of people that included my roommate (Keith Smith) and his fiance, and I think her brother and seems like there may have been one more person, ah, maybe “Stick” Mann who was our next door dorm mate, and maybe even Stick’s date. Yes, if it wasn’t Stick Mann, then there was an incident later, after the game where I met Stick Mann’s father in the hall way, and was introduced. As I recall, from my drunken stupor, Mr. Mann had short (military style) white hair. Seems like I was so drunk that as Stick and his dad were down near his room door, and me & someone else were about mid hall, where there was a drinking fountain, I actually said something about his dad looking like an “onion head.” I didn’t mean anything derogatory, but I was extremely drunk and was just relating my first impression.

At the game, someone had brought a bottle of Tanqueray Gin, and it was being passed around. I was so drunk by the time it got to me that I poured a small Dixie cup full of straight gin, and then because we had no more mixer, I asked for a Peppermint Lifesaver and dropped it in the cup, suggesting that now I wasn’t going to have to drink it straight.

There were also some people seated behind us and there was a woman that reminded me of Marlo Thomas, which, as drunk as I was, I had to tell her this at some point.

Eventually, before the game was over, the “brother-in-law-to-be” had to walk me back to my dorm from the stadium. At some point, I woke up on my dorm bed, with a small bit of “puke” on my pillow and a “dog chewed” Frisbee in my hand. I was still very, very, very drunk and I had no idea from where I had gotten the wrecked Frisbee. And, even though this was only late afternoon, and I would drink nothing else the rest of the day, when I did finally go to bed, much later at night, I was still really, really drunk.

So the next morning, I have this severely chewed plastic Frisbee and I don’t know where it came from. Not a clue. There are dog teeth marks on every part of this toy. Now, I didn’t recall how I got back from the football game to my dorm room. Someone may have told me that the “brother in law to be” had walked me back, but I had no remembrance of the journey. That is until several years later, and suddenly I had an image of the courtyard in front of “Connor” dorm, which was about three dorms down the street from my dorm, “Aycock.” *I shared a dorm room with Keith Smith, Room 318, I think. Third floor, second from the end, toward the street. This dorm was later (many years later) renamed, since “Charles B. Aycock,” former Governor of the Great State of North Carolina was a racist. I guess if someone could convince President Trump, he could find another person with the last name of “Aycock” that the dorm name could be changed back to, like Fort Bragg – Fort Liberty – Fort Bragg, but not the same Bragg. How stupid!

I then recalled that there were bunches of people spread across the courtyard and that there were several dogs all chasing and playing with “the” Frisbee. That is where all of those teeth marks came from, and I must have wrestled the Frisbee from one of the dogs and brought it back to my dorm room. So, the incident was a complete blank for at least a couple of years, but eventually I did recall enough to know where the Frisbee came from, and how it had become so damaged.

Courtyard in front of Connor Dorm. During my time at Carolina, there were fewer trees along the street.