“Without Leaving Home”

~ Elizabeth

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A popular credit card company used to have a tag line “Don’t leave home without it.” Now I experience the opposite, “Don’t forget where you put your card before you order.” In our part of the country, while many restrictions have been lifted, people over 65 are still being advised to “Stay Safe. Stay Home.” This means that I have become very used to seeing our local United Parcel Service delivery man.

When I was a child, most things came as deliveries. Milk, cottage cheese and eggs came from the dairy. Clothing and toys came from Sears or Montgomery Wards. The pharmacy delivered. Department stores would help over the phone with purchases and then deliver them. Even if we went downtown on a Saturday and bought things they were delivered to our home later that day. The only time we left home to buy things was on Saturdays. Once a week my mother used our one car to go to the grocery store and the library to stock up on food and books. My father used the car the rest of the week to go to work. But of course all of that changed over the last fifty years. Until now!

I have made the transition to even buying groceries on line and having them delivered, though I do miss just going to the store. While I miss my weekly visits, our library has recently made it possible to phone in book requests and then drive there and have a librarian put the books in the trunk of the car. No serendipitous finds, but something to read nonetheless.

Because so many people in my country refuse to follow even basic requests for masks and social distancing, the virus rages out of control here. I remain impressed by the compliance in my state, but we are very much outliers in the national scene. And of course we can’t stay return to any semblance of normal life until our fellow citizens across the nation get control of the epidemic.

Until then, I will stay home and stay safe. And I will continue to fill our recycling bin with the enormous amount of cardboard coming into our home every week. Maybe I should have invested in a carton factory!

37 thoughts on ““Without Leaving Home””

  1. I had to use an essential food box service during our lockdown, I had no choice on what came…it was interesting and hilarious at times.

    But yep the stuff that wasn’t edible or usable including large cardboard cartons, ice filled sachets, wool wadding in plastic bags, strapping stuff…

    I had hoped to just use my regular online food place, but I could never get a delivery time…so had to find another company. I’m back to regular online place and topping up when I need to via local strip stores…

    My landline broke during that time – I’m not terribly pleased with the replacement, as I like to handle them in a store; my neighbour bought a number of things, including a weed eater which I had have inside my pad, as it was raining that day (he an essential worker) and then he discovered it was actually the wrong size, but no way to return it!

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    1. It was quite a challenge to figure out how to save a spot of time. I have gotten a little better at filling a basket half full and then holding the delivery slot. My daughter’s family joins our order, and it is fun to have to sort everything out when it arrives.

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  2. We hardly ever went shopping when I was growing up. Groceries on Saturday, new clothes at the beginning of the school year. I’ve made up for it since and still do the shopping now, though carefully, distanced and masked.

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  3. I still go to the supermarket once a week, just to get out of Beetley for a couple of hours. Otherwise, I am also dealing with a mountain of cardboard packaging from Amazon. 🙂
    Best wishes, pete.

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  4. Good for you complying, I’ve read many similar posts from US residents. It’s all good in Perth WA and even if it wasnt we have the reputation of being a nanny state so you couldn’t get away with not complying, there would be too many comments

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  5. Pete and I have been out of the house maybe three or four times since March, only to go to the doctor’s office. I do feel fortunate that we are able to stay home and stay safe and get most everything delivered.

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  9. I used to get all kinds of stuff delivered by the milkman – heavy stuff like potatoes and fragile stuff like eggs that don’t do well in my shopping bag. I used to feel guilty when I cancelled anything regular (which was my excuse for having cream delivered every weekend). When I moved, I didn’t set up a new order with the local milky (there was only me by then, and I only use milk in tea).
    Nowadays, I hardly ever see a milk delivery van – although we live off most delivery routes anyway.
    My second husband likes to drink milk every night so I generally buy three four-pint bottles on my weekly shop. Who knew, back then, how heavy milk is?

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      1. The milk deliveries became really versatile… before they declined and almost packed up completely when the supermarkets became so much cheaper. I believe they’re getting popular again in the UK, but nobody delivers out where we are.

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        2. I wonder if Covid’s given them a boost? My daughter has her milk delivered and she sends a text when she’s going to be away – which beats a letter left out in a milk bottle, at the mercy of the elements.

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  10. For a while, the air was clearer. Fewer vehicles on the road. Now, we have a slight haze coming back.

    I enjoy ordering online, the only problem I have, is I see more than I can afford.

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  11. Most of the things we need now are delivered online. We recently bought a new microwave oven and another air cooler and they were delivered online. Some groceries I also buy at Lazada.

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  12. Our dairy & bakery products were delivered daily by men in horse & cart with Clydesdale horses growing up.
    One came at dawn for our dairy products (called the Milko), the baker came before lunch with fresh bread or bread rolls.
    The horses knew on their own to walk to the next house & wait while the men ran to deliver the products to each door.
    Sweet memories 😀
    Bless you,
    Jennifer

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  13. I remember back to the Fuller Brush man and the Jewel Tea Company — and oh, yes, Watkins, when they came to my grandparent’s house. My sister had Schwann’s delivery. Being in the country, during harvest many farmers drove around in pickup trucks selling produce. I especially enjoyed when the watermelon trucks came up from Georgia.

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    1. My first lipstick was given to me by the Fuller Brush man. I was so pleased. I remember loving all the things he carried, especially the brush comb for cleaning out the hairbrush. We didn’t have Watkins or Jewel. Schwann’s has definitely had their business increase around here.

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  14. Continue to stay safe!
    Your post reminded me that I grew up in a house that had a milk chute for delivery of dairy products. As a little girl I loved this, especially on those rare occasions when my mother might have ordered a can of potato chips a gallon of ice cream! For a brief period, I was of a size and capability that when neighbors locked themselves out of their houses, they asked to borrow me in order to put me through their milk chutes so I could unlock their doors for them! Many homes have had their chutes sealed shut in recent decades.

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    1. We had a coal chute when I was a kid. Our milk was left in a little box on the back porch. No one locked their houses so even though I was tiny I was never put to use!

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