Stocking up on ... everything
Locals head to Jenkintown Wawa for coffee, lunch, and groceries.
Maryann Brazil trudged 30 minutes through the snow this morning, in snow up to her ankles, uphill both ways. Well maybe not that last part.
But sharing the road with thick snow and drivers having little room to move to the side, she said, made the walk pretty treacherous. "You know there's ice under there, you just don't know where," she said. "So you walk slow, and pray to God."
Brazil chatted up the regular customers behind the register at the Wawa in Jenkintown. The store was busier during last week's storm. Today, she said, "it's mostly the workers" coming for their afternoon coffee, hoagies and snacks.
So far, Brazil hasn't heard any crazy weather stories. But last week's power outage was still a major topic of conversation.
"I didn't even check to see if the train was running today, cause last time it wasn't," said Kiki Quinn, buying bread, milk and cigarettes in plaid pajama pants. She was right not to check -- her office downtown closed for the day, and the Trenton line she would have taken to get to work had been running serious delays all day.
Quinn lives in Warminster, but came down to Jenkintown to stay with a friend. "So we could get snowed in together," she laughed.
Bob Johnson, a retired police officer, drove his wife to work and stopped at the Wawa to get eggs. "I'm making a birthday cake and ran out." Johnson was nonplussed by the storm. "Doesn't phase me. I've been driving in this a lot of years."
"It's funny how many people call, 'Bring this, bring that,'" Brazil said, nodding at a man on the phone taking lunch orders for his office. "You want yogurt? Chobani? Or you want lemon flavor?"
Some of his colleagues may be getting more than they bargained for. "I don't see any diet green tea," he said. "Oh, there's a half-gallon one."
Another woman sighed as she approached Brazil's register with two giant cups of coffee. Her kids are out of school, again, and she's trying to find new ways to entertain them. "We're kinda tired of," she paused. "Everything."