Hello, One day, we were in our mom’s car going to two different stores for specific groceries for her cooking. The streets were out of her Westside of Long Beach area where we grew up as car driving teenagers. So, those roads, highways and community streets were very familiar to me. The location we were heading was 12 plus miles away in Gardena and another one was in Southwest Long Beach. My wife and I had been to both locations many times in our errand days or just cruising around days... As good as our mom was in her specialty cooking and dinner prep, she still needed to get special supplies for our meal. But, she did not like to drive a long distance by her self and when my wife and I visited often, we did the driving. Our mom was an intense, white knuckle driver and a little scary. So, as we drove to the first place in Gardena, she thought we were on the wrong road and it was leading us away from the specialty grocery store. So, she started telling me which way to turn and head in order to get to the store. ha! A true, back seat driver! Jnaki My wife being nice as she could, mentioned that I knew where the store was located and that we were heading in the right direction. Our mom in the back seat said it was not in the right direction, but sat back into the rear seat back, a little disgruntled. We got to the store in record time and as we pulled up to the parking space, my wife and I both smiled at each other. We moved that incident to the “old age” era and confusion setting in. My wife was an expert in family relations and made everything fine... A chuckle from both of us secretly was the mode for the rest of that shopping trip. Then, on the way home, our mom still needed some other supplies, so we detoured to a different specialty store. This time it was from the West heading East back to our Westside of Long Beach house. But, again, our mom from the back seat, mentioned the road we were on was wrong and we were not going to the second store for the final supplies we needed. Needless to say, this time my wife told our backseat driver that the store was very popular and that we had been there many times from all directions. So, we were only a few blocks away. In no time, we arrived at the parking lot and started our “smiling” shopping spree. But, our mom nicely said that she would buy us lunch at the great restaurant in the same center and that was outstanding… it pays to be a nice son and wife/daughter. YRMV And the dinner supplies later on in the evening, turned out to be one of those classy sauce soaked dinners that our mom was famous for, in all family circles. It was, as if, we were at one of our favorite restaurants that served a combination of fresh fish, vegetables, and grilled marinated meats for a dinner meal to remember. It was a good thing we were fast metabolism 20-30 somethings and could handle meals like these weekly... ha! Note: Since we arrived in our 327 powered 1940 Ford Sedan Delivery, our mom would not ride in it. So, we always took her Chevy sedan to the errand runs and shopping excursions.
The Jalopy Journal
