I walked up to the young man stocking the soda shelves and said, “Kid, the fate of the Fourth of July is on your shoulders.”
I don’t know if Walmart employees are issued a panic button to push if confronted with “odd” customers, but the look in his eye made me believe he wished he had such a device.
“Here’s the deal. It’s not the Fourth of July unless I can pour strawberry soda over vanilla ice cream. I’d hate to have to tell all those folks who are waiting for fireworks to go off that you’re responsible for it not happening.”
He and a second stocker scoured the aisles and came back with the sad news: the Jackson Walmart had no strawberry soda in any brand.
(By the way, you can click on the images if you want to make them big enough to see the bubbles.)
Schnucks Saved the Day
Hoping to salvage the holiday, I went to Schnucks.
They, fortunately, had at least four brands of red soda on the shelves.
Cue up the firework displays. (For the record, this was taken in Middleport, Ohio, in 2015, while escorted by Curator Jessica, who is still young enough to get excited about things like this.)
After it was over, she asked how I liked it.
My answer was to play Peggy Lee singing Is That All There Is?
More Fourth of July posts
- The Wilkesville 4th of July parade
- A Quiet 4th Around Cape
- A Garden of Fireworks over Middleport, Ohio
- Flags Coming Down at North County Park
- Fireworks and Fishing Along the Riverfront in 2012
- Arena Park Fireworks from 1963 (they aren’t very good, honestly)
- How to Shoot Fireworks Tips (#1 Don’t let your Mother set your feet on fire)
- Blowing Up Tin Cans When We Were Kids
