Tuesday, July 1, 2025

Blue Light Specials and a Grandma's Love

Grandma C with the shades...always cool!






With the recent shuttering of the Kmart stores in America—some apparently still exist in other countries—I am reminded of my Grandma Connelly.

Grandma wore thick strappy white sandals with reinforced toe pantyhose. She had false teeth and tight grey curls, and I thought she was a fairy princess. We three Jones kids loved our Grandma C or at least that’s the way I remember it. A few summers we got to go spend a week or so at her Sacramento home. There were zoo visits, Fairytale Town visits and visits to Kmart.

Grandma Connelly was not actually legally our grandma. She had been married to my mom’s dad for a few years when my mom was still young. Grandma left Grandpa MacDonald because he was abusive, but she loved my mom and her older brother, Reggie, and stayed in their lives. She was my favorite Grandma—real or not.

She loved her “great grandchildren” too. When we were living in the Netherlands, I wanted Kelsey and Cory to have a special quilt to keep with them to remind them of all the people who love them. I sent squares of fabric to friends and relatives. The designs that came back to us were sweet and creative. Grandma Connelly made those squares into two beautiful quilts for Kelsey and Cory. I like to think of those quilts as a group hug. 

Some of my favorite memories with Grandma involve that iconic store with the bright red logo. We could spend hours in Kmart—chasing blue light specials and eating greasy Kmart tacos—and if we were lucky, popcorn! Blue light specials were fierce. Items were marked down only for a few minutes (while the blue light swirled) and customers would frantically crowd the clerk making the markdowns. If it were an especially great buy, Grandma would tell us to “guard our cart!” while she elbowed her way to the clerk with an armful of merchandise. People were known to occasionally swipe items from other customers’ carts. It was a great marketing tool. We would sadly exit the store worried that we were missing future awesome specials.

On one visit, I remember our younger brother, Johnny, embarrassing grandma at the checkout line. Johnny called Grandma “Baba” in those days. While Grandma was writing out her check (the stores still accepted checks!), Johnny proudly and loudly said, “Baba, take your teeth out!” He was so pleased with Grandma’s awesome trick that he wanted to share it with the other Kmart shoppers. Grandma tried to shrug off his request, but Johnny repeated it loudly several times, so she acquiesced and spit her teeth out. Poor grandma!

My grandma was quick to laugh at herself. She loved telling the story about the time she made her famous fried chicken for her pastor. Grandma worked in her hot kitchen frying the chicken just right. She then made homemade chicken gravy and mashed potatoes; my vegetarian mouth is watering just thinking about Grandma’s fried chicken dinner. After the table was set and her guests were seated, Grandma proudly presented her chicken. Grace was said and the food was being passed when Aunt Mary said, “There is a fly in the gravy.” “Oh, no,” Grandma assured the guests. It’s just a piece of chicken. Aunt Mary, who was 12 at the time, insisted it was a fly. So, grandma plucked it out and ate it and the meal carried on.  Later Grandma confessed that it was a fly she ate to save the meal!

Thank you, Kmart and Grandma Connelly, for the memories.

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