The Last Time I Saw America
On March 16 th of this year, I went to bed in America as usual, but woke up in Venezuela. I didn’t know it over breakfast, however. It didn’t dawn on me until a few hours later, after I had reached the paper goods aisle at our local Target store, when I encountered two long rows of empty shelves where the toilet paper used to be stacked. Later that afternoon, still optimistic, I headed over to our nearby Trader Joe’s to buy said toilet paper, only to find that they too were sold out. Not only that, but the people in the store were filling their carts to the brim, and many staples were already sold out. I figured these shoppers must know something I didn’t, so I filled my cart too—mostly with things I didn’t really like or want—as that was all that was left. After all, I was unschooled in how to survive in Venezuela. I did figure out though, that the frozen mahi mahi burgers were not a good bet. They were the only untouched item in the entire freezer case. Cherie Zaslawsky Canada...