Braving the storm for whatever

With roads as slick as an Olympic luge track, I have to wonder: What is worth venturing forth to shop for?

After all, we can make do with whatever is in the pantry for a day or so. We don't need new parkas to brave the elements if we're safe and warm inside.

Bread and milk are known as traditional must-have items.

But truth to tell, I think booze and cigarettes are at the top of the gotta-have list for lots of folks.

It's all a matter of priorities. I recall stopping at the Wawa in Palmyra during a huge snow storm several years ago.

I bought bread and milk, maybe a dozen eggs, honest.

The woman in front of me in line, who confided she had walked five block through thigh-deep snow to get to the store, was buying candy -- a big sack filled with Hershey bars, Reese's peanutbutter cups, Tootsie Rolls and whatever else was left on the snack rack.

Clearly, this was what was important to her, just like the husbands who are scrounging for last-minute Valentine's Day gifts.

I volunteered to give her a lift home and she accepted. She seemed a little embarrassed about the candy but she needn't have been. She was a sweet person, a fellow traveler through life.

I never saw her again. But I am grateful to her for shattering that silly myth about bread and eggs.

We shop for the things we think we can't do without, pure and simple, whatever they might be.