Such a Cliché

Have you ever noticed that whenever anyone on TV enters with a bag of groceries, there’s always something green and leafy sticking out the top? This was especially true on TV shows during the 60s and 70s. June Cleaver, Hazel, Alice on the Brady Bunch – they all had leafy things sticking out of their grocery bags.

It was such a cliché.

There are so many of these clichés around and they’re always something that never really occurs. For example, have you ever known of anyone to actually slip on a banana peel? Never happens. What about telling a cab driver to “step on it?” Nope. Never.

Well, today, I entered into the realm of clichés. I had to get some groceries during my lunch hour and had forgotten my handy grocery bag that I usually carry with me. I found a small one in my office so I took that. The plastic bags really hurt one’s hands when carrying heavy groceries back several blocks. And they are prone to breakage in the middle of Wacker Drive. I once lost a cabbage that way. It fell into the river.

At the grocery store, I packed my groceries in my small bag and the last thing to go in was a giant bunch of Italian parsley. And there it was - - THE quintessential TV show bag of groceries.

I was SO embarrassed walking back with that thing. I kept trying to smash down the parsley but it wasn’t budging. I mean, really, who has EVER seen a real bag of groceries with leafy things sticking out the top?

I had to walk through the lobby of the 83-story building where I work with my Brady Bunch bag of groceries. It was just awful.

Here are my horribly embarrassing groceries.

I may just take a cab home from work and tell the driver to "step on it."