My sister and I (along with my husband) recently took a very short trip to Sebastopol; we were curious to visit the town where our dad was born and spent his childhood. It was SUCH a short trip that we didn't get to see much of the town; however, while we were there, we made a point to keep our eyes out for places that looked like they could have conceivably been around in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when our dad was a Sebastopol resident. Now, I don't know that Sequoia Mini Mart -- or the next door Sequoia Burger -- were ACTUALLY around back then, but they had that "vibe." So, even though we were all "burgered out" from prior road trip stops (not to mention, still full from our Mexican restaurant dinner!) we decided to stop at Sequoia Mini Mart to pick up some treats for our road trip home the next day. My sister and I figured, "wouldn't it be cool if, once upon a time, Dad bought baseball cards here or something?"
Upon entering, we found a dusty little mini mart stocked with the usual candy, soda, snacks, a few toiletries, and some "cheap" toys (plus a couple of "bored" seeming employees behind the counter). There was also a rack filled with cute (but slightly overpriced) "Sequoia Burger" t-shirts and sweatshirts, with smiling hamburgers on them. And some other random items, such as decks of cards and plastic-coated pocket calendars with "California Wine Country" (and a beautiful picture of a vineyard) on the cover. I toyed with buying a calendar, just because, but I didn't (and felt somewhat remorseful after that ... maybe next time!)
Over toward the back of the little mini mart, a stack of styrofoam cups sat next to some abandoned-looking coffee machines. Even though it was about 8 pm, I decided that I was in a coffee mood; yet, I was skeptical that more than a drop or two of liquid would come out of those coffee machines. Surprisingly, not only did they still have coffee in them ... my coffee actually tasted fresh and (for "mini mart" coffee) not too bad!
Unfortunately, I couldn't satisfy my other craving ... moon pies. (Yes, those cheap, processed ones ... wanna make something of it?) They had several flavors available: strawberry, banana, chocolate. My husband mentioned that "a moon pie and an RC cola" was a popular snack in the South, and -- who cared that we were in Sonoma County, CA, not the South -- I decided that that sounded good. However, when I checked the expiration date on a strawberry moon pie, it read "February (some date), 2011." Now, I might be willing to eat packaged, processed, cheap excuses for snacks ... but NOT ones that were due eight months ago! I checked the dates on some other moon pies, and they were all old, too. It made me a little hesitant to try any other food product (even if the package didn't have an expiration date, who's to say how long that candy had been sitting there? I also decided "never mind" on the RC ... it just wasn't the same.)
Still, I got my coffee. My husband (who doesn't care about expiration dates) stocked up on some sweet and salty snacks for himself. My sister even found a (German?) toy airplane in the "toys" section for her significant other in Germany. How cool is that?
The place just had an odd, kitschy charm about it, and I'm glad we stopped by ... old moon pies and all! read more