Sluggy's Solo Road Trip.....Part 2......OH to IL

So after choking down a half stale bagel on Saturday morning at the Ramada in Elyria OH, I got onto the Turnpike heading west into Indiana.

My head wasn't in a good place that morning.
A not-so-restful night at the dingy motel combined with weather that was off and on again miserable Plus a general sense of trepidation as I drove toward the outskirts of Chicago and the clusterf*ck of traffic I'd have to dodge just took all the wind out of my emotional sails.

I stopped somewhere in IN at a turnpike rest area during a torrential cloudburst to eat a fish sandwich and some apple slices and buy a soda for the ride since I needed a caffeine boost to keep me going.
I downloaded the On Star directions that would guide me to Sonya Ann's house while I waited for the skies to let up.

I had a printed out MapQuest direction sheet but felt better having the GPS thingy on too, since once in traffic, it's hard to be looking at a paper for your next exit while driving 70 miles an hour.

I kept driving in and out of rainstorms until right before I got to the western edge of IN.

Once I got near my exit onto I-80 West I panicked when I saw that my exit was CLOSED due to construction.  And just where did the fine folks of the Department of Transportation detour me to?
The Chicago Skyway.
Crap!
Anyone who has driven this piece of Roadway Hell knows why I was crapping in my pants.

Hubs and I were sent through this Death's Highway last August when we went to IL for his sister's wedding.  But last year, HUBS was driving, not me.
Fan-so-tastic!

So I was doomed to the Skyway.  sigh

I have to say that the On Star GPS thingy worked well and other than the permanent marks left on the steering wheel from my white knuckle driving I did aok.  All those rainstorms slowed traffic around Chicago way down(which was good in a way), but it also made the time it took to get past Chicago longer.

Ok, here is where I get to rant and rave about the outrageous tolls I had to pay driving through OH, IN and into IL!

The Ohio Turnpike robbed my pockets to the tune of $17, the Indiana Toll Road for $10 and the Illinois Toll Authority/Chicago Skyway for $5.50.
$32.50 total.....and that was just one way on the trip!
Thankfully I was NOT returning along that route to get home again.

Incidentally, this stretch of the trip was the only part with toll roads in it.  Everywhere else I went had the good sense NOT to charge me to use their highways.

So my original plan would take me west of Chicago past Joliet, past the urban centers and then north, up to Sonya's house.   It was sort of a roundabout longer way but with less driving stress.
With the I-80 detour that plan didn't happen.  It was the Skyway around Chitown and then up to the suburbs. bleh.

Since the rain had stopped by the time I got to the Skyway I made a stop in Kildeer IL to do some shopping at a World Market store.

I won't go into the "almost incident" that happened in the parking lot at this shopping center when a over botox-ed anorexic old bimbo with an expiration date of 1990 walked out right in front of my car as I got between her and the overpriced shoe store she was wanting to get to, and she made a face at me(even through the Botox, what an effort that took!)and I saw red and pictured myself calling Sonya Ann from a local jail cell to come bail me out, after I had run this bitch over.
Nope we won't go there......

I "heart" WM.
I picked up 12 more gourmet sodas, which happened to be half price!

A bottle of a most excellent sparkling Moscato from Australia that is now discountined at WM

Bottles of Torani Syrup(also on sale), a couple of single bottles of craft beers for Hubs that we can't get in PA.

                                 One of the beers for Hubs--ChiTown

3 bags of dried cantaloupe fruit(love this and can't find it anywhere but WM), 2 large bars of Ghiradelli Chocolate at 55% off(A $1.26 for chocolate?  Yes, please!), and a bag of Maple Bacon flavored Potato Chips.
Mmmm....bacon......

 

This particular WM has just begun carrying hard liquor, besides the beer and wine offerings all WMs sell.  I spied a Utah based whiskey Hubs can't get in PA, so that also left the store with me as well.

You can tell Hubs likes it because it's already half gone! lol

After dropping $127 at World Market I gave Sonya a call and said I'd be arriving in about 45 minutes so get my drink ready because after the drive I just had, I really needed one! lol

And 45 minutes later I pulled into her driveway and gave her a big hug.....before taking my drink and parking myself in her living room.

The rest of the day was devoted to drinking and gabbing, then a little eating(it was a spaghetti feast & Den made a really good dip/salsa thing with sun dried tomatoes too!)and then more drinking and gabbing until we just couldn't do either anymore and we fell into bed(well, 2 different beds....get your minds outta the gutter willya?!).

Next time, Sonya makes a big impression, we go to Vegas, buy out a liquor store, frugal shop and eat cheap steak.

Sluggy






 

JUNE Food Stamp Challenge......Food Insecurity, Hunger & Society

This post is part of the June Food Stamp Challenge located HERE.

 There are many people in this country who believe hunger exists only in other places in the world.  You see those images on late night television of far off lands where the relief organization needs you to send a small check each month to feed the hungry children.  So you turn off the tv & ignore the pleas or you write a little check to mail off.  You then feel like you have done your part and are safe in your little corner of the world from ever facing hunger.  After all, you live in America, the riches nation on Earth!



But the next time you are in any public place in America....the bank, the mall, the post office, the library, the local park, and especially the grocery store, look around you.  Just because you can't recognize the faces of hunger that surround you, they are there.
Hunger in this country is everywhere and in places you don't think it exists!
How does this relate to me?

There was a time in my life(well, 2 times to be exact)when I was very 'poor'....poor menaing I lacked enough money to support my basic needs.  (Poor and not having money aren't necessarily the same thing....but that's another philosophical discussion for another time.)

The 1st time was between the ages of 15 & 18.  Due to a chaotic and totally dysfunctional home life during those years, I was left to raise myself alone in the family home without my parents.  Only occasionally were one or the other of my parents around.  Mostly they were absite for assorted reasons(business, separation, divorce, hospitalizations, emotional and mental breakdowns)and I was left alone there with the family dog.

Though the house and utilities were paid for I had no food once what had been left in the pantry was depleted.  Being underage with no parent around I was not in a position to get food stamps.  If I had tried to apply at my local welfare office as a minor, the whole situation of a child left alone would have opened up a social work case and I would have been taken into custody and placed in a foster home, which was NOT an arrangement I wanted or deemed necessary.  So I knew better than to ask for help there.

We had no family in the area and my brothers were grown and off living their lives....one was working at sea off the Alaskan coast and the other was living hundreds of miles away and trying to establish himself in business.  Neither was in a position to help nor did they know of my situation.   Between my best friend's mother feeding me occasionally, my father dropping off a $10 check a few times in 2 yrs. and later on, getting myself a part time job at a sub shop for money(as well as taking home food from that job), I was able to keep from starving.  All the while attending a private high school and living in a 5 bedroom/3.5 bathroom home on an acre of land.  If you hadn't known the details of my situation you would have never guessed by looking in from afar that I was living a life of total food insecurity.

This experience has totally colored my world when it comes to food.  I continue to this day to have 'food issues' related to this time in my life.

My 2nd brush with food insecurity was during college.  My father stopped paying for my 'board' at school when I moved off-campus during my Sophomore year.  At this point, being over 18 but attending school in a different state from my state of domicile, I had no clue if I qualified for any kind of governmental food assistance and frankly, I had no clue about asking anyone about it.  Again, I sucked it up and worked 3 different part time jobs while attending school full time in order to feed myself and pay bills.

By my Senior year I was living with my boyfriend in a roach-infested basement apartment and we had $20 cash between us to pay for our groceries per week.  $20 to feed 2 people for a week.  That was back in 1980, but even with food not being as costly as it is today, $20 was a small amount to eat on then.

Having $100 in 1980 is like having $243.45 in today's money when you adjust for inflation.  This means that feeding 2 people in 1980 for $20 would be like feeding those same 2 on $48.69 in today's money.  That comes out to be less than the food stamp allotment of today.  Gee, I was eating on a food stamp budget even then!
It would have been nice to have had those food stamps in 1980 and to have had that $20 cash freed up for spending on other necessities that we had to forego...or use to buy a better quality of food.

Back in 1980, I had one of those metal carts with 2 wheels that I used to carry our groceries home from the local A&P every weekend.  One time, one of the paper grocery bags ripped and a jar of mayo fell onto the sidewalk and broke.  This was a food catastrophe to us!  That mayo was needed for our weekly tuna sandwiches and should have lasted a month or more.  Finding the cash to replace that meant some bill got paid late that month.
As for what we ate on that $20 a week....I recall that we had a lot of boxed mac & cheese, plain jarred sauce and spaghetti, tuna fish, cheap hot dogs, grilled cheese sandwiches and canned beans.  For a treat I would make lasagna when mozzarella was on sale and I used cottage cheese instead of ricotta because ricotta was too expensive.  If we could afford meat that week we'd have hamburgers made with a ground beef mixture containing TVP because it was cheap or we would buy chicken legs.  The boyfriend had gotten some money for a graduation present from his parents so we used that if we felt we needed a night out at the low-rent college cafe.  Going out there cost about $10 for 2 people with alcoholic beverages and food in 1980.
We couldn't afford to do that very often.... 

One time, boyfriend's ex-roommate saw us in the grocery store and asked to borrow some of our $20 food budget from us.  As I recall, he wanted $8.
Ex-roommate was the son of wealthy NYC judges who lived on Park Avenue.  He had never lived outside of Manhattan until college and he was of the opinion that every place outside of 'the island' was a desolate wasteland, devoid of culture and class and the people who populated the country were not worth knowing.  Yah, I didn't like him very much. lol
He couldn't wait to finish school and get back to NYC.  Yes, he was a pampered, spoiled,  privileged snob who had never wanted for anything.

Daddy was late with his generous monthly check that month so instead of using Daddy's creidt card which he carried, he decided to ask his friends, who had $20 to eat for a week between them, for a loan of 40% of their food budget. (This ex-roommate was notorious for NOT paying back loans promptly-if at all!-as he never felt the sting of not having money in his life.)  It never even crossed his mond that other people lacked for resources.  And when we said no(well, I said no), he was aghast that we turned his request down.
Nothing personal(well sort of)....it was all about self-preservation baby.  

Ok....so what's my point here?
I'm not sure.... 

May it's that no matter your station in life, things happen that can put in a situation where you have a hard time meeting your basic needs.  It can happen in a heartbeat with no warning.
Just because someone appears to have money enough to live, don't assume.  There could be things going on below the surface that you are unaware of.

There are many times in life where ANYONE can experience a food insecurity and be hungry.  

Sometimes it's a child or teen who is living in a situation not of their own making due to the adults in their life.

Sometimes it's a young adult trying to establish themselves in a job and trying to pay their own bills for the first time.

Sometimes it's experiencing an unexpected reversal in life(job loss, illness, addiction, domestic abuse, accident, etc).

Sometimes it's being caught in a cycle of poverty(often many generations long)and seeing no way out.

Sometimes it's being old and/or disabled at any age and unable to support yourself fully any longer.

In today's world, you need a safety net.  In times past, people lived with or near their extended families.  Your family was your safety net in times of need and you could be assured of being taken care of it needed.  Families took care of their own.  And if the family wasn't there, usually the community was and could help.  Neighbors helped each other and communities solved their own problems.

Now for whatever reason you wish to believe, people are disconnected from each other.  Families move great distances from one another.  People living in the same building or in houses on the same street hardly know each other.  Waving to your neighbor as you get in your car to get to work or as you pass by while moving your lawn is NOT knowing your neighbors....

Unfortunately, family and community do not exist for many people and they must rely on government for their safety net.

The best we currently can do for a hunger safety net is the Food Stamp Program.
That it is necessary doesn't say much about the society we live in today.


Sluggy
 

JUNE Food Stamp Challenge....Thinking About Food & The Planet

This post is part of the June Food Stamp Challenge which is located HERE.


Taking part in this Food Stamp Challenge got me thinking about what we eat, both what food our country and culture values and what we personally consumer here at Chez Sluggy.
 
I was reminded of this Photo Essay created by the husband & wife team of Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio that they turned into a book a few years ago called "Hungry Planet".

Check out the link located HERE at Walrus Magazine for a brief article on it.  There are 15 photo links there where you can access photos of half of the 30 families that were profiled.
Basically the Menzel/D'Aluisios  lived with the families for 1 week and detailed every food product they used during that time.
Then they laid out in the photos of the families all that food that was consumed in 1 week.


From the Ayme Family in Tingo, Ecuador....

To the Melander Family in Bargtheide, Germany...

To the Ahmed family in Cairo, Egypt...

To the Revis Family in Raleigh NC, USA....

You can't view those photos and not come up with definite impressions about the differences and similarities in how people around the world eat.

So, what does what you serve on your dinner table say about you and your culture?

Sluggy