Changing Habits

My husband likes to cook and I enjoy being a sous chef to his creations -- in other words, I prepare the ingredients and he does his magic in putting them together. So that also means the end result is we enjoy eating at home, taking pleasure in the satisfaction of having a home-cooked meal.

But . . . once in a while, oh, it is just that easy to eat out.

Not eating out often is nothing new for us, but what about everyone else? Before our economy took a dive deeper than one of the wastewater retention ponds, how often did you eat a meal outside the home? Once a week? Three times a week? Almost every day?

Are you still eating out that often or have your habits changed? If they have changed, it becomes a slippery-slope for all the businesses around us. If we are not frequenting restaurants as often as we used to, they obviously are not as busy, and the wait staff and other employees suffer -- in hours and tips.

Then the slipping truly begins.

Restaurants may have to raise prices, the staff cannot turn around to go out and spend their money on other businesses, and so on.

Maybe many of us cannot afford to eat out as we did 6 months ago, a year ago; but don't give up on it completely. Just be a bit more selective. If you know you are going to be eating out, frequent the places most dear to your heart.

In a recent article by Buddy Moorehouse, published in www.livingstondaily.com on February 15, he glibly spoke about businesses that are or have suffered in this down economy. Following is just a portion of the article:

We see businesses come and go every year in Livingston County, but we've certainly seen a lot more of them going lately (thanks to the cruddy economy, no doubt). A lot of people are mourning the loss of Checkerboard Pizza and the Hamburg Food Center, to be sure.

Personally, I'm mourning a lot of my favorite spots that have closed down in recent months. Pettysville Junction (formerly Max's Mall) was a little general store in northern Unadilla Township, just around the corner from my house. It closed down a few months ago, and I miss it something fierce.

Sufficient Grounds, a wonderful coffee shop in downtown Howell, shut the doors about the same time. I spent many a lunchtime there enjoying a bagel sandwich and taking advantage of the wireless Internet access.

Heck, we even lost the Fowlerville Big Boy in recent months. Our family used to stop there all the time for breakfast after Saturday-morning gymnastics practice.

All these store and restaurant closings have got me feeling nostalgic for some of the other places of the past that I miss. It's a list that includes Uber's Drugs, the Pinckney Inn, Annie's Pot, the Little Professor Book Store, the Comic Pit, Pinckney Pharmacy, the D&C, Big Wheel (but not Ames) and the Honeydew Cafe. Going way back, you can add the Midget, the Canopy and the Old Howell House.

True, plenty of new and wonderful places have come to town and taken their place — where would we be without the Stillwater Grill, T.W. & Friends and the Fowlerville Wal-Mart? — but we lose something every time a longtime business shuts the doors for good. So humor us, please, while we observe a moment of silence for these two latest casualties.

Laughter sometimes is the best medicine, but this time around, I would like to offer up a different suggestion. Yes, our spending habits are changing and some businesses will suffer. But consider what I mentioned above.

Instead of completely giving up some of these simple pleasures, be selective. It is how we help each other.