How can I explain that I've lived here for over 10 years and never been to the Ctown on 9th St.? Well, people get in ruts, like when someone is sure that they wouldn't like a hamburger with a bun and then maybe they have a few beers one day at party and wind up shoving a hamburger in their mouths, bun and all, and they eat it.
The mistake that led me to Ctown today was forgetting to bring in the Dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets for cooking day at my daughter's school. I felt like they pitied me as I walked in holding my daughter's lunch box, obviously I'd completely forgotten the instructions they had so carefully sent home. They said it was ok, I didn't have to have the nuggets, but how could I have coped with letting down THE KIDS. No way.
Then I remembered what my friend told me recently. When you shop at Ctown, you can park in the CVS parking lot. The lot was empty except for 2 cars, and walled off like a fort. Walking over to the store, I noticed it was called Steve's Ctown.
Well, I didn't know it was Steve's Ctown. Who is Steve? Yes, I asked the cashier as I checked out, but first I looked over my shoulder to make sure the police that hunt down obnoxious people were no where in sight. The woman gave me a look of mild annoyance and pity when she answered. "He's the owner."
"Oh, is he kind of a personality?"
She was still and calm. She gets a spark.
"He's a beautiful man. Quiet. He only comes in on Mondays. "
Darn, it's Thursday. Too bad he wasn't around, because I would tell him that it is beautiful that the Stoneyfield Farm strawberry yogurt that my son drains so quickly is only $4.69 at his store. I'm used to paying $5.99 at Key Food. Is it a miracle to have found this out? Or does it confirm something about myself that I'd rather not know...
Oh, Key Food. I tried to make it work. You are on 11th Avenue, like me, 2 blocks from my house. But you used me, the yuppie douchebag that will fork over solid gold for anything with organic written on it. As if that would somehow solve all my problems. You said "look at that one, here she comes, up all the prices!" Then when I got there, you wouldn't look me in the eye. I'm done with this! No longer will I wonder what the Key in Key Food really is. Now it's time for me to try to understand the C in Ctown. Is it Compassion?
Update: I misread the price tag on the yogurt at Key Food, it is 5.09, not 5.99. The ink was thin on the stamp and the 0 looked like a 9. I can't say "never mind", which would be lovely, but I am saying, oops! Sorry! What a relief, the price difference: $.40, not $1.40.
11 comments:
I was in CVS one day when they made an announcement that they were towing cars if you did not respond to your vehicle's license plate number read over the loud-speaker. I wondered if they made that same announcement in C-Town! (I still live on the wild-side when and park in CVS lot to shop at CTown!)
I love that they share the lot. It's like a lichen; part fungus, part algae. Thanks for warning about the towing, can you imagine how terrible it would be to hit the lot with 10 bags of groceries and find your car gone. I guess it's always a drag to find the car gone. Unless you were hoping to lose it.
I have some poor parishioners in my church who walk all the way from the North Slope (rent-control, in case you want to know) near Grand Army Plaza to C-Town to shop. Reason is simple. Price.
That C-town, oddly enough, is the old Keith-RKO Prospect Theater. If I remember correctly the auditorium was was converted to shopping in the 60s, and the stage (8th street side) was turned to condos in the 80s.
Ok, so who was Keith? And what does RKO stand for? So much to know, so little time... Thanks for the benefit of your inquiries and experience, Icky.
You flatter me ... or at least egg me on.
"Radio Keith Orpheum." was the film studio formed when the Keith/Albee/Orpheum theater chain was merged with Joseph Kennedy's theater booking monopoly. Benjamin Franklin Keith was a major vaudeville house operator, as was Albee (as in Albee square on Fulton).
Benjamin Franklin Keith...wow, the name is our most rollicking forefather and a rocker with eyeliner rolled into one! What a beautiful dream.
I just read he married Ethel Bird Chase,another incredible name.
This c-town rocks!!! the managers and most of the cashiers are nice. =)
i work there now as a cashier and i could ask too much more of the place except for some of the customers to be nicer and not come to the register with an attitude. it just kills the mood.
& we've been trying to find out what the c in c-town means for the LONGEST!!!!
OMG
& i didnt kno steve was a real person lol. wow
I've read that Keith-RKO Prospect Theater was the site where the Three Stooges made their debut, back when they were a vaudeville act.
Hearing that makes me feel very proud to shop there, bong, and much more comfortable if I happen to break something or slip in yogurt I just spilled in the aisle.
The "C" stands for Charlie. I know cause I work there.
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