Wegmans and the Topic of Community

A Rochestarian friend once said of Wegmans grocery store: "Every time you go to Wegmans you always see three people you graduated with and one of them is still working there."

I'm convinced that you have to be from Western New York to embrace the true essence of Wegmans. But Northern Virginians are learning. While I was growing up "Hey, let's go to Wegmans" really meant "Hey, its 10pm on a Friday night and we're bored out of our minds so lets go wander around the bulk candy section and see who we run into." Today, "Hey, lets go to Wegmans!" means "We can't decide where to go out for dinner, so lets go to Wegmans because they have prepared food from every geographical region and it's all so unreasonably priced that you can't help but feel you're in a gourmet restaurant!"

Loudoun County Wegmans is more than a grocery store. It's true piazza of cuisine. It's a mecca of fine teas and pretentious wines. But the longer I live hear the more I'm seeing that Wegmans, at its core, is still good old Wegmans.

For instance, you never go to Wegmans on Saturday, unless you want to get there at the butt-crack of dawn (my new favorite phrase, attributed to Kaitlyn, and describing the time that I've had to wake up the past 3 weekends). If you go at any other time the place is mobbed. Or take for instance the bread guy. Yes, the happy Asian man who gives out free samples of bread. I've heard my students talk about him and I've even been graced by the generosity of his "A special one for you!" free sample, which is twice the size of the normal free samples and apparently given out to pretty redheads. And then of course there is the sheer fact that every time I go to Wegmans I see at least one person I know. Last week it was a teacher that I work with, the week before that a student rang me up at the register (fortunately I wasn't buying any alchohol).

You're probably wondering why I've spent my entire first post talking about a grocery store. You see, Wegmans is a place where the community comes together. In my hometown Wegmans is really the only decent grocery store and everybody shops there. Everybody eats the Wegmans brand generics, and every five year old knows how to weigh their fruit. Now I live in the sprawling DC suburbs and this idea of community takes a vastly different form. But I've realized of late that community is still possible. Now, the suburbs can be alienating. Your neighbors haven't watched you grow up, you don't know that last three families that lived in the house next door before the latest family moved in an remodeled. And there is no Charlie Gainer - the small town legend with six cars in front of his trailer and a beat up pickup that hauls around everyone else's junk. When you sit in the coffee shop window you can't gossip about everyone that walks past. And in Loudoun County you can't leave your dog's poop laying around for people to step in.

But in the midst of suburbia I have found community. I found a church that is named, quite appropriately, Grace Community. And in that community there are girls to talk about the things girls talk about, guys with whom I can discuss theology or computers and some "moms" who are just good church moms. And I'm finding here that the world is a lot smaller than it first appears. The more people I meet the more connections I make. And then there is the debate community. This will probably be worthy of a whole new blog in the near future...but suffice it to say, debate is a place where nerds are cool. I fit here. And then nothing reinforces community like a good old fashioned high school football game, complete with the fight song and the color guard and Star and Stripes forever. And of course my roommates, who've seen the best and the worst I have to offer and can make me laugh each and every day.

I'm a country girl at heart, but I'm making a pretty good life here in suburbia. A year ago I couldn't have imagined it. But I fit here now. And that's not at all bad. It's where God put me. Someday, God willing, I'll end up back in the country with a hobby farm. But for now I'll be a suburban girl and enjoy the gourmet Wegmans.