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I wrote this story on March 20, 2020 and never posted it. For the sake of “Documenting the Days,” I decided to go ahead and publish it . . . late. Better late than never for a historical, global archive.
Here’s what was happening in Spain at that time.
I thought he was kidding. Vincent was talking to his dad in France about grocery shopping.
“You can only get three items?!” I heard my husband say in disbelief.
After the phone call, Vincent explained to me what was happening in France. You were only allowed to buy three of any one item in the grocery stores.
“Are they rationing?” I asked in bewilderment.
I guess they were.
Trying to Celebrate a Birthday
The next day was Vincent’s birthday. Even though we were in total lockdown, a birthday was still worth celebrating. I made my dinner menu and sent him out on his first grocery store run.
He didn’t have a mask, but he’d collected a fair amount of plastic gloves from the gas station pump. Hopefully, those were thick enough to protect him. After all, it was his birthday!
I wrote up a quick shopping list before he headed out the door. I needed eight chicken breasts for my special dinner surprise.
Upon arriving at the store, Vincent sent me pictures of the long line that wrapped around the building. So much for a fun and relaxing birthday. This was not going to be a quick grocery run.
The store entrance was heavily controlled. Customers had to stand outside with their carts 2 meters apart. Only a certain number of people were allowed in the store at the same time. When one customer exited, a new one was allowed to enter.
Limits!
Upon entering, Vincent saw signs throughout the store indicating the number of items you could purchase. For example, you were limited to 4 liters of juice, 4 packages of meat, 2 dozen eggs, etc.
Vincent did his best to “work around” the system. He filled his grocery cart with 4 liters of apple juice, 4 liters of orange juice, etc. However, when he got to the register, the cashier was not about to be fooled.
“Only 4 liters of juice total,” she explained to Vincent.
“Oh, I thought it was 4 liters of each type of juice,” he answered with a smile.
“No, 4 total,” she said sternly.
He couldn’t even honestly use the excuse of not understanding the sign in Spanish. He understood, and he was caught.
Were we being rationed?
Yes, we were!
No Meat
At the first store, there was NO MEAT AT ALL! NO MEAT! I asked Vincent if he took a picture, but he didn’t. He was too frustrated.
“Next time, you can go grocery shopping yourself and take pictures of all the crazy sights!” he said.
“That’s ok,” I answered laughing. “I’m happy for you to brave the storm on behalf of our family!”
With only a half trunk full of groceries—not nearly enough to feed our family of six for the next week—Vincent headed to another grocery store, and another grocery store, and another.
So much for being careful and limiting his exposure to people in public places.
“Make sure you find chicken,” I had told him. “I need it for your birthday dinner.”
Vincent was on a mission. He had to find chicken somewhere in town.
Four hours later, he came barreling through the door. He was loaded down with grocery sack after grocery sack.
“Did you find chicken?” I asked him.
“Yes, I found chicken,” he answered. “Two packages. That’s all they had.”
I looked at the two packages with two chicken breasts each.
Is That Enough?
“Is that enough?” he asked.
“Nope, but it will have to do,” I replied. “Did they really only have two packages of chicken?”
“You can’t even imagine the stores. They are completely empty,” he explained. “They limited us to four packages of meat, but these were the only two packages remaining.”
“Well, I’ll ask God to multiply the chicken breasts—like He did with the loaves and the fish,” I said with a chuckle.
Wow! The shelves were still empty in the store, and we were being rationed. This was getting serious.
No Waste!
From that moment on, our family went on a clear “No Waste” campaign.
—I suddenly found myself pulling out half the amount of toilet paper that I usually used. Anyone else catching themselves doing this?
—I started going through all of my cupboards, fridge, and deep freezer. I made a list of everything we already had, along with a list of creative meals that I could make with the ingredients we had on hand.
—One night’s menu was “Frozen Food Night.” It consisted of all the little bits and pieces of frozen foods remaining in our freezer (none of which constituted a full meal on their own!)—2 mini bean burritos, 3 filets of fish, 1 pizza, 4 mini crêpes, a handful of chicken nuggets. It was a free-for-all, first-come, first-serve meal . . . and an easy one at that!
—When I didn’t have an ingredient on hand, I looked for an alternative. For example, we ran out of flour one day. Pierre had been asking if we could make a treat, so I looked for creative, “flourless” desserts online—no bake cookies with oatmeal, flourless chocolate cake topped with powdered sugar and raspberries, etc. Yum! Maybe it’s not so bad to eat gluten-free!
—When I may have been tempted in the past to throw out left-overs after a few days, we now eat every last bite!
—We used up every single, saved, McDonald’s packet of ketchup and mustard before we opened a new bottle.
The list goes on and on. No waste!
We were being rationed here in Spain, so we better be very careful and conservative with our spending and our consumption.
And, in the meantime, we must stop complaining when we don’t have enough chicken, when we run out of flour, when we have to eat the same leftover meal three days in a row, etc.!
Thankfully, almost two months later, the grocery stores are no longer rationing. There is plenty of chicken, and we can buy more than 4 liters of juice at one time.
However, our “no waste” mentality is one that we are doing our best to keep at our house!
—THE CULTURAL STORY-WEAVER
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Did you experience rations in your part of the world? What was that experience like? What did you do in response to the “lack”?
We invite you to tell us your own cultural stories and global adventures . . . as you engage with the world, breaking down barriers, building bridges, and “weaving cultures!” Write about them in the comment box below.
