But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?
1 John 3:17
There
is this little grocery store on Molalla Avenue in Oregon City called the W-B Food
Mart. It is (or was – I’ve heard that it is now owned by worldly people – not sure
if that’s true) owned by the White family (descendants of Walter White) and the
Baker family. There was a small apartment that was rented out cheap to
down-on-their-luck Followers above the store. A one-bedroom unit that was often
occupied by some aging bachelor. The parking lot of the W-B was a source of
church gossip.
We were
expected to buy our groceries from the W-B because it was owned by Followers
and only employed Followers. The prices and selection were not great and it was
not always fun to have some guy from church commenting on what you were
purchasing as he rang you up. But the store extended credit to all Follower
families, so if we didn’t have enough money to buy groceries, we could put it
on our tab.
There were several other big grocery stores in town, but it was
shameful to be seen going into one of those stores. Dad
finally told Mom she didn’t have to shop there any more after one too many
disparaging remarks made by a W-B employee. We started driving up to Clackamas
to buy our groceries at WinCo every other week and the food was so much
cheaper, the store larger, the shopping anonymous.
