Home planet

What the H E double hockey sticks is going on here? No, I’m not going to talk about the CAO’s departure from our municipal administration, or the so-called municipal old boys club, or who has the right to privacy and who doesn’t. For those of you who know me—and some of you think you do—I do have an opinion about the goings-on at Sheer Hell. And it’s just that: my opinion.

But on a more interesting note, have you noticed how weird we’ve become about our consumer habits? We daren’t mention a shopping trip to someplace other than the home planet, aka the County. What the H E double Air Miles is that all about?

Recently, LOML and I bought a new car. I laughingly mentioned, on social media, how we’d managed to get the car home before we realized we hadn’t paid for it. We thought car theft on that scale was pretty funny, said as much to our friends, and chalked it up to our long car-purchasing relationship with that dealer in Belleville. Two friends asked me why we went to Belleville to buy a car. (Hey, what about the theft part?) My reply was pretty simple: There isn’t a Honda dealer in the County. But I sensed an underlying tension. An uneasiness, if you will. They were disappointed we’d taken our car dollars to Belleville. Hmmmm. Maybe we should let the Economic Development people know that we need a Honda dealership in the County. But consumer habitswise, it didn’t end there.

Recently, someone posted a cute poster with a suggestion that it would be interesting if we stopped spending our grocery dollars in the big stores, using instead [a] “small fraction of that money” to purchase our food at local farmers’ markets and roadside stands. Furthermore, the poster wondered if the big grocery chains would even notice if it happened. Seriously? The good folks at No Frills, Sobey’s, Metro, Pierson’s Foodland wouldn’t miss any of us? No one would lose their job stocking shelves, staffing the delis, mopping floors, cutting meat, working the checkout? I think a whole bunch of someones would notice.

What about my coffee? As much as I like my Honda, I like my Kicking Horse coffee. Am I going to find Kicking Horse at a local farmers’ market or roadside stand? And I’m no Girl Guide. Don’t be asking me to go without toilet paper. The person who posted the suggestion eventually said they really meant the big stores wouldn’t notice if we bought seasonal produce at farm stands. Well, sure, why not? But let’s be perfectly clear, I’ll buy strawberries and rhubarb at a farm stand, but I’m not wiping with the rhubarb leaves.

Finally, let’s stop being so local about what we have here in the County. Yeah, yeah, we’ve got lots of fabulous consumables created, crafted, baked, cured or grown by talented people. I’ll be the first to admit I love County goods. We certainly do have plenty to eat at home in the County. But come on—let’s not slag our friends and neighbours when they talk about dining away from the home planet. How homogenized would we become if we only grazed in the back forty?

theresa@wellingtontimes.ca