Jumbo

Greetings,

In keeping with the Thanksgiving holiday spirit…..the gang headed out to Jumbo for a little shopping trip. Jumbo is our equivalent of Toys-R-us / Wal-Mart. It is a 2-story building stacked full of kids merchandise, baby supplies, toys, household goodies, with anything and everything in between. I should included…this is not Wal-Mart or Target….not even close, but its all we have!

The fire department at NSA Souda Bay is sponsoring the Greek version of Toys for Tots. The toys collected are given to the local orphanages and children’s charities. So the Chapel women decided to plan a hopping trip to Jumbo. We wanted to give rides to any of the sailors who wanted to buy toys, but did not have a ride. We also collected money to purchase the toys for any of the sailors who preferred to stay home….which should have included Harry in that category.

Harry is not a shopper. Well not a shopper I enjoy shopping with. He is one of those husbands that push the cart around….aisle after aisle…watching like a hawk every item tossed into the cart. Only then does his look of total boredom turn into a look of total horror. The man has a mental calculator inside his head….constantly tally my goods. Questioning each item I touch… “You sure the kids will like that?” “That does not look very sturdy.” “How much does that cost?” “How much do you plan on spending today?” “What are the age groups…that looks kind of young.” “When I was a kid….I played with guns, not building blocks!” Then when I debate the toy guns for the toy drive, he says, “They may not be appropriate for the Chapel to support violence with guns.”

See how happy he looks!

But because another husband was going…Harry thought he too would venture the marathon shopping trip with the women.

Many moons and several carts later…… we had our loot. Any more and we would not fit in the van with our purchases. Shopping carts filled to the brim with goodies for a good cause. I love shopping for charities….I feal no guilt when Harry sees the bill.

Unfortunately, I forgot the foreworn the Chapel attendees on the trip about Harry. Not that he is a bag of laughs while we are shopping, but the aftermath is worse. I call it sticker shock. Harry calls it bankruptcy court.

It takes him about an hour to get all the blood rushing back to all parts of his body. In about an hour his face muscles begin to work again and his scowl becomes just a normal frown….then about 30 minutes later and he might talk again. Depending on the amount spent determines the length of time it actually takes. That and how close we are to payday again.

But all in all we had a blast. We even went to a second store….and get this…. It’s called….“Euro Store” …where everything is a Euro. Harry drove round and round in circles with the driver….too hard to find a place to park downtown on a Saturday. So he did not have to go through the ritual again so soon after decompressing from the first shopping stop.

Blessings to those die hard shoppers for a good cause,

Kristie