Shopping Adventure · 1 July 2012
Shopping at Cabela’s® is quite the adventure. Then again, as I think back, every trip to the store used to be quite the adventure.
When the kids were younger, we carried them around or pushed them in strollers or shopping carts. As they got older and more numerous, we did not shop as much together except when we needed to. Still, my wife, The Mindboggling Mrs. Miyoshi, and I would drag the three boys around looking for school supplies or books or Christmas presents. Sometimes literally. I remember pulling one of the boys by the arm or the back of his coat and dragging him on the ground through the aisles one time. Actually, I am sure I did it more than once and with more than one kid. I am sure what precipitated the dragging was the plaintive cry, “I’m tired,” or “I can’t walk anymore.” But instead of putting him on my back and carrying him, I just dragged him around for a bit. I am sure that whichever one got the treatment, the others wanted to get dragged around too.
As they got older, they still complained, but our oldest, Thing 1, turned into the guard dog. The Mindboggling Mrs. Miyoshi could shop with little care about the younger two because their big brother and I heard their complaints and were out there corralling them when they tried to wander. (Thing 1 was really more of a herd dog, but thankfully, I did not need to give him whistled signals to get him to move his brothers to the right place. He just knew that we all needed to stick together and he did not want to lose either of his younger brothers.)
Now, Thing 1 is out on his own and Thing 2 and Thing 3 are old enough not to really need much supervision. We can send them off together without much worry that they will make it back to us or meet us at the right time and place. So when we went to Cabela’s®, my wife and I just told the kids where to meet us when they were done looking around.
It was amazing to be in a store without the kids in tow. There was no complaining. (Even by me.) No cries of “I’m bored,” or “When are we going home?” It was peaceful walking around with my wife and enjoying the store together. We even got to enjoy the company of our oldest son even though he was 1000 miles away. While my wife texted back and forth with him and relayed to me what they were saying, I wandered the store nearby.
Now, I am not a hunter nor am I the avid fisherman like my dad and brother, but Cabela’s® still had its charms. It was like a museum to me. I liked the stuffed animals (think taxidermy, not teddy bears) in their various displays around the store. It was also amazing to see the large fish in the aquarium. I perused the books and even thought about learning to tie flies. It was quite the store even for the non-fanatic.
Somewhere in our wandering, I lost The Mindboggling Mrs. Miyoshi. When I found her again, I was surprised. She had a gun.
My wife had the biggest grin on her face when she showed me the Daisy® Red Ryder bb gun she was going to purchase. She insisted it was part of growing up that the boys had yet to experience. I just rolled my eyes. I knew, of course, that she wanted to experience her own childhood again and that the bb gun was for her. She sheepishly admitted it was, so I did not even get the chance to rib her much. Nor did I get to quote the movie, A Christmas Story, because Thing 1 had already texted her, “You’ll shoot your eye out.”
Shopping is not quite the same adventure it was when the children were little. I do not need to grab them by the scruff of the neck and drag them around the store anymore. Nor do I really need to listen to their complaining about it being boring or that it is taking too long. While we still hear those complaints (not always from me), now the boys are old enough that we can just send them out on their own. While I might be a bit nostalgic about shopping with the boys when they were little, I am not longing for those days. But after shopping at Cabela’s®, I am reminded that every shopping trip used to be a big adventure.
© 2012 Michael T. Miyoshi
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