A long walk down memory lane...

My junior year at BYU I got a job at Good Earth. Actually, at first I didn't get the job because the owner who interviewed me (Rachel) thought I didn't smile enough. Right before I was going to start cleaning classrooms at Dixon Jr. High, I got a call back from Good Earth and I was saved from the life of a janitor. Back then, the store was located on Center St. in Provo. It had huge windows facing south and west (perfect for watching sunsets) and a little tree just outside. I watched the seasons change on that tree in downtown Provo for several years. I loved working there. Walking through the front door, the first sensation I enjoyed was the strong smell of herbs. One of my favorite jobs was measuring herbs into 2 oz baggies and labeling them to be sold. I bagged echinacea, rosehips, peppermint, chamomile, lavender, cayenne, goldenrod...you name it, I bagged it. The other day I stopped in at Good Earth in Orem. Passing over the threshold took me back years in single whiff.

The shop had a small grocery and produce section that sold organic food, whole grain food, gluten-free food, or food made of soy or rice. Each item had to be priced by hand using a sticker gun. I was fast at pricing a shipment and getting it out on the floor. I didn't buy much from the store because I was on a student's budget but I got to try a lot of the stuff here and there. Because of the different kinds of food items we sold there, we got a different kind of customer than your average grocery shopper. They ranged from the hippie type to the food allergy type to the heath-nut type to the hyper-religious type to the crazy type. We did get some of your average joe's....but they were few and far between. This would be a great place to people watch if that's something you're in to.

There was also a section that was dedicated to vitamins, minerals, herbs, supplements etc. We had Herbal Consultants who would help customers with their questions and direct them to different medicinal remedies. One of the most interesting Herbal Consultants I worked with was Will. He had long red hair but one day he showed up with it chopped off. It was surprising to us all because he loved his long hair. It had been part of his identity for years. It turned out he was a little bit paranoid of conspiracies and the government and he wanted to blend it. He thought his long hair might cause unnecessary attention.

Will's main focus for well-being was a clean liver. He suggested a liver cleanse to just about every person who asked him for advice. His supplement of choice was dandelion. He told me that if I wrote my name, birthday, and address on a piece of paper, he would send it to his mom or something and with that information she would be able to tell me what was out of whack in my body. O.K. I said. The suggestion that came back to me was that I needed to do a (drum roll please) liver cleanse. I let myself get talked into buying capsules full of dandelion and taking however many Will suggested each day. One morning I quickly threw several capsules into my mouth, gulped a bit of water, ran out the door to my car and hurried up to BYU for a class. On the way, I noticed that one of the capsules didn't go down. In fact, it felt stuck somewhere up behind my uvula or something. I kept swallowing and swallowing but it wouldn't go down. I got to campus and was slowly driving in the Marriott Center parking lot looking for a space all the while swallowing hard. It just wouldn't come dislodged. I decided to try coughing. With my first cough, the capsule burst open and a puff of dandelion powder filled the air and coated the inside of my mouth and sinuses. I opened my car door as fast as I could to spit and gag. That was the end of my liver cleanse.

Good Earth also has a little bulk room. This was one of my favorite sections of the store. You can buy grains, flours, nuts, seeds, dried fruit, granola, carob chips, and healthy candy. Right after David came home from his mission, he came to work with me at the shop as the bulk room manager. He was in charge of ordering what was needed and filling the bins in the bulk room. Working together became an interesting experience for us. It was during those six months when he was a weird returned missionary and I was in the process of getting papers to go on a mission myself. He wasn't happy about me leaving, though he wasn't ready to get totally serious. I ran into a friend last year who worked with me at Good Earth during this time. She said she walked in on David and I kissing in the back room and in the walk-in fridge all the time to the point that she was sure I wasn't really going to go on a mission. I had to laugh at that memory of hers because although I didn't realize anyone walked in on us, I sure do remember a lot of kissing. I also remember when David flipped me off. Seriously (but please don't hold it against him). We were fighting, probably about me leaving, and just as I turned to look at him through the window of the bulk room door he flipped me off. He went home and cried to his mom. This was such a Latino moment--the passion, the remorse. Ahhh, the memories.

After my mission, I came back to work at Good Earth. I just couldn't get enough of that store I guess. David was dating this young 18 year old named Melissa before I got home but he broke up with her when we started to date again. It turned out that she applied for and got a job at (drum roll for reals please) Good Earth. I knew who she was but she didn't know who I was. This was not the first time I worked with one of David's ex-girlfriends. Every so often David would stop by to see me at work when she was there too and because he didn't want things to be awkward for her or hurt her feelings, he'd pretend not to know me and chat with her. David and I would meet up in the back. This happened enough to make me way bugged with him because my feelings were starting to get hurt.

While I was away for those 18 months, David and his sister used my car and made payments on it for me. David was supposed to sell my car for me but he couldn't bear to part with it. It turns out he took a lot of girls out in that car, including Melissa. One day after work, she and I were walking out to go home and she recognized the car. "Hey. I know this car." (I'm sure you do.) "I've been in this car." (I'm sure you have.) "This is my friend's car." No, it's mine. I told her that it was my car but my boyfriend had it while I was away. I saw the lights come on in her head. Needless to say, she quit not too long after that.

I have so many memories from Good Earth, like working there with my bro Trevor (he worked in the cafe in the back and gave me sandwiches made from toppings that fell by the wayside) and the homeless guy who stalked me there and had to be asked to never come back. I worked at Good Earth as a shift manager until I had my first baby and I haven't been back very regularly since then. The store moved to a "new and improved" location but I miss that old shop and the windows and the tree.