the liquor aisle

As many of you know i grew up in Pennsylvania. In our fair commonwealth, liquor laws are quite strange. Hard Liquor could only be purchased in a state operated liquor store. If one wished to buy beer, there were two options: 1) by the glass-->in a bar 2) by the case-->in a beer distributor. the beer distributor had to devote 50% of the floorspace to non-alcoholic beverages. The result was a lot of soda for sale by the case. in a beer distributor one could only buy cases of beer, no six-packs. the supermarket sold only O’Doul’s beer and Fré wine due to the restrictions. i presume the rules still work the same silly way as they did before i left for college.

as a result of growing up in that funny system, i am always a little bit excited when i pass the soda aisle in the supermarket and the liquor aisle comes into view. First the margarita mixes appear, nothing new about that. Then the maraschino cherries and plastic swords (which i bought at one point). A few more steps around the promotional display and there it is. The beer cooler comes into view in all its puritanical-rejectionist glory.

Jon and I were shopping last night at the Giant that we generally call gigante due to its impressive selection of foods common in the Spanish speaking world such as inca cola, jicama root, plantain chips, and our favorite crema centroamericana. So as we promenaded down the main thoroughfare we were approaching the liquor aisle. we definetly didn't need any beer, we already had some sam adams summer, hefeweizen, red stripe, and pilsner urquel. I asked jon if we could "just take a quick look". He wasn't convinced. "It's always a fun aisle," i protested.
He turned. Just as he did we ran into a group of early twenties women. Their conversation went
something like this:
#1: so i was like, eww, that is such a high school beer.
#2: you can't drink in high school. how can something be a "high school beer"?
#3: where did you go to high school?

That is certainly my favorite aisle. It never disappoints.