When I was 12 years old my Mom and Dad and I moved to Tampa, Florida. There was a little corner store near our house that sold Chocolate Yoo-Hoo. I had never tasted it until I moved to Florida. Once I tasted it, I think, I drank one or two bottles (YUM!) a week from 1981 to 1986, when I was old enough to join the Army.
That same corner store sold peach NeHi and blue cream NeHi. They also had a Galaga coin-op video game that spent $1 on every week. I also bought the Tampa Tribune (It seems to be out of business now.), there every morning and read it while drinking my morning coffee. Reading the Tampa Tribune - first to last page- every morning was, I think, one of the most important parts of being homeschooled. I had the BEST teen-age years.
One time, when I was home on leave from the Army, I think it was Christmas time in 1989, I was in that little corner store when a man got angry and yelled at the woman behind the counter. He left and the woman, whom I had known since I was 13, said through her tears, "Why didn't you do something?" I was ashamed for not having done "something" but I also knew that if I had done "something" one of us, either that angry man or I would not have walked out of there. I told her that but it didn't help. 40 years later I still don't know if I made the right decision. I wish I had done "something".
23 hours ago