Welcome to America

Yesterday I was in Morehead City with an Ocracoke friend, car shopping. We also went to Wal-Mart. An enormous Wal-Mart, the kind with a grocery store. The kind of store that's so big you end up calling each other. We actually had three separate phone conversations while in the store, acres of plastic merchandise separating us. Being from Ocracoke, huge stores are both thrilling and mystifying. What does it cost to air condition that place? Who buys CD's at Wal-Mart? What marketing genius could make me want yet another beach towel?

I bought a stand up fan, a summer's supply of toilet paper, and pop tarts. Then, because there is still a limited selection on Ocracoke, I ran errands at the liquor store. News flash: the genial people at the ABC in Morehead bat not an eye when you purchase what struck me as a huge amount of vodka by an array of distillers. Now that was fun.