For her, every trip is a shopping trip

It was probably only fair, since I made my excursion to a spring training baseball game with my brotherin law during our trip to Florida, that my wife get in a shopping excursion of her own.

To be honest, shopping is part of any trip my wife takes, and requires no special excursion. But in this case, we did wind up going a bit out of our way for a shopping stop on our way to Panama City Beach.

We didn’t take the direct route south to Panama City Beach, but went via Greenville, Ohio, where Terry’s family is originally from and where she still has relatives.

But although we did meet several of her cousins and spend the day with them, even they have learned by now that that wasn’t the primary reason for traveling via Greenville.

As I’ve related in past columns, Greenville is the home to, among other things, the Kitchen Aid Corp. and their factory outlet store in downtown Greenville — a combination of two of my wife’s greatest passions, shopping and cooking.

And no, I don’t even come in third on that list — I’m still struggling to make the Top Ten after all these years.

In fact, I’m not sure if Terry even recognizes that there is anything else in Greenville — at least, Kitchen Aid is usually the first place she heads when we get there.

We arrived in Greenville Friday night, well after the store had closed, and headed to our motel to check in.

That night took me back 15 or 20 years, to Christmas Eve nights trying to get anxious children to sleep so Santa would come in the night with their goodies. I finally convinced Terry to settle down so Saturday would finally come and she could go to the Kitchen Aid store.

We met Terry’s cousin and her husband — who live near Columbus but had come over to Greenville to see us — but she hardly acknowledged them in her haste to get to the Kitchen Aid store.

Now, to me, it looked like all the same stuff that had been in the store last summer, which was the last time we were there, but then what do I know?

Terry, on the other hand, was like the proverbial kid in a candy store, going up one aisle and down the next, checking out all the shelves and all the displays.

It was a little disconcerting, to say the least, that the clerks in the store remembered her from her shopping frenzy during the store’s sidewalk sale last summer, which we happened to be in town for.

I do have to say, even I was a little touched when they rolled out the red carpet for her, greeted her by name, and even started to tear up a little bit when they welcomed her back to the store.

Unfortunately, she had to break the bad news to them that she won’t be able to attend their sidewalk sale this summer, as she has another commitment that weekend here at home and won’t be able to make the trip to Greenville.

I was a little bit upset, though, when her cousin told Terry that she would go to the sale next summer and take care of Terry’s shopping list for her — since Kitchen Aid offers free shipping on orders of that magnitude.

Judy even promised to call Terry on her cell phone from the sale to catch her up on all the specials and freebies. I thought families were supposed to be supportive of one another and not encourage or enable each other’s bad habits, but I guess I was wrong.

We did manage to get out of Greenville without having to hire an 18-wheeler — the bargains in March are apparently not as enticing as they are during the summer sidewalk sale.

Terry did get in some shopping in Panama City Beach while we were there, although it was mostly buying souvenirs for the kids and grandkids — which, I will admit, I joined in wholeheartedly.

Another highlight of our visit to Panama City Beach was what proved to be a mini-class reunion for me.

It turns out that at least two of my high school classmates live in or near Panama City Beach — which we discovered via Facebook.

We made arrangements to meet for lunch one day while we there, and Terry and I wound up spending nearly half the afternoon — me catching up with them, Terry getting to know them, and vice versa.

I do have to say that I’ve lost a lot more hair over the last 40 years than both of them, but then again, that’s to be expected — both of them being female members of the class of 1971.

I didn’t date either one of them during high school — something I assured Terry of before arranging the reunion — so that may have helped make it a pleasant afternoon for everyone involved.