Sour Cherries at Buc-ee's
About a year ago, our cadre made our annual holiday trip through the territory of childhood memory. But something new happened this time: We discovered Buc-ee's, a huge gas station and emporium.
My friend and editor Robin, upon our first in-person meeting at a conference in March 2023, enlisted me to write about a peculiar road trip I was describing over drinks at the hotel bar.
“We’re doing a travel issue,” she told me. “Please write about Buc-ee’s.”
Challenge accepted.
Thanks to Robin and the team at South Writ Large for encouraging me to write this piece, “Sour Cherries at Buc-ee's,” especially when I quickly realized this piece wasn’t really about this megastore at all.
“Just make sure that you actually mention Buc-ee’s,” Robin emailed.
Thank you also for my friends at Château Orquevaux for providing listening, curious ears to make this essay stronger. While there are no Buc-ee’s in Champagne, there is one hell of a grocery, E. Leclerc. Maybe another time I’ll tell you about almost being run over by a Zamboni-style floor cleaner over there by the yogurt.
From the dawn of the Internet to a month ago, if I wanted to know something, I looked it up. Now I right-click it. I am so excited at finding the "look up" function on my mouse. But, I'm a cluts. I spelled "down" "dwon" the other day, and corrected it, only accidentally to right-click. It asked me if I want to "Look up down."
But, the first word I ever right-click-looked up was "Zamboni". I had no clue what a Zamboni is and looked it up. It was a bit of an "aha!" moment. I guess a Zamboni has to be called something, but, to be honest, I'd never dwelt on what that something was. I don't even ice fish.
Since then, the word Zamboni has arisen at least six times in conversation, one of which was with a friend who was searching at the tip of her tongue for "those things they use on ice rinks". Ah, I replied, nonchalantly, you mean a Zamboni? Zamboni! That's the word, and that was indeed the word. The Word was Zamboni, and the word was good.
I am now anticipating an avalanche of occasions which utilise the word "Buc-ee", and I can hardly wait.