Places I'm Not Allowed Without Adult Supervision

Remember when you were younger and just learning about money and how to budget your money? Your parents would give you a set amount of money to spend in a store or if you are of my generation, you had chores to do around the house and earned an allowance. (I think that is passe now isn't it? I never hear about allowances anymore.)

Anyways, you had a set amount of money and you would wander around the store looking for something to buy based upon how much candy or toys or, in my case, books you could buy. But, hovering around somewhere in the store, were your parents. You had adult supervision while you were trying to decide do you buy four Charleston Chews (four for a quarter), a Laffy Taffy , (when Willy Wonka wasn't part of Nestle), some Wacky Wafers (discontinued when Willy Wonka was bought by Nestle) and still have a nickel left over or a box of Pop Rocks, a candy necklace, two Seven-Up bars, some wax lips and a piece of bubble gum and have two pennies left over.

Now that I'm a grown-up (supposedly) and allegedly responsible for my own discretionary income, I have grown to believe that even now there are some places I should not be allowed to go into without a responsible adult.

Here's my list:

• Home Depot (unless it is the one in Watertown, MA from which I've been banned...)


• Borders


• Barnes and Noble


• A&S Italian Fine Foods in Fairfield, CT


• Radio Shack (only the section where all the audio cables, capacitors, resistors, and those other "odd" looking things that make up circuits are located)


• Williams - Sonoma


• Crate and Barrel


• Sur La Table


• Any restaurant supply store


• King Arthur Flour Baker's Store (and their website too!)


• Kitchen Arts and Letters (a cookbook store on the Upper East Side)


• Strand Books (The NYC Police should cordon off the subway exit to Union Square when I'm in town)


• Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks (in The Village and almost kitty-corner from a great little French bistro)


• Joanne Hendricks Cookbooks (on the lower West Side)


• Stew Leonards


• Balducci's


• Grand Central Market (in Grand Central Station)


• Zabars (on the Upper West Side)


• REI (their website needs to be off limits too!)

While we're listing the places I shouldn't go into with a responsible adult, let's add a few websites that should have "parental block" on for me:

• Amazon


• Old Cookbooks (They have a retail store in Reno, NV but I haven't had cause to go to Reno...yet.)


• Campmor


• LL Bean (add the Mothership in Freeport and the Ben and Jerry's on their front patio)


• Lands End

And after yesterday's little stop to "only" pick up some cinnamon, we probably ought to add Penzey's Spice to the list...