The Tale of Three Pops

In the city, who doesn’t love their corner store? For me it’s Pops, or as it’s officially known, “The Moscone Deli”. I seem to stop in there every day or so for something I desire for that evening. When I first moved into this space in SOMA, I wandered out of the back of my building looking for some food. Right around the corner I happened onto the Moscone Deli. I was looking for some bread and cheese, and their selection was rather small by my former suburban supermarket standards, but I found what I wanted and headed to the counter.

There stands the original Pops or, as he was later dubbed, “Cool Pops”. Why so cool you ask? Well let me tell you, this cat was cool – mid sixties, black wrap-around shades, Armani Exchange jacket, small driving hat and a warm smile to die for. As we both stood there in our black sun glasses and Armani we gave each other one of those cool movie nods, like “hey you’re cool too” – and I exited.

The next day I came by with my girlfriend and Pops perked up even more. Putting on the charm and giving us some free candy as we left. Over the course of the next few months we frequented Pops often. One day he told us, “you are my favorite couple”. I’m not sure whether or not that was true, but we always enjoyed the great smile and the free candy : )

One day about four months ago Cool Pops was gone. We went in there day after day and he was nowhere to be found. We were sad. Even worse though, Cool Pops was replaced by Shaky Pops. He might have also been called, Suspicious Pops, Pops From Another Plant, or We Don’t Give Change Pops. Don’t get me wrong, Shaky Pops is a great guy. As with any place you frequent in the city people warm up to you over time. No free candy though. : (

Chapter three started about a month ago. The reign of Colonel Pops. Imagine a grey balding military haircut on a five foot two frame and no tolerance for anything. He looks as if he just stepped off of a tank in the desert somewhere. He also triages customers. On more than one occasion I’ve heard him mutter something like, “get this measly lottery ticket out of my face” to the sandwich guy. Who by the way executes this order, immediately whenever he hears it. Anyway, as with all of the other Pops, Colonel Pops has also warmed up to us.

Do you see a pattern emerging here? What’s next? Crazy Pops, Sarcastic Pops or something so weird that I can’t even imagine it? Personally, I’m hoping the rule of threes applies here and the Pops curve will start heading back up again.

I hope one day, Emily and I are sitting on the beach in the Greek Islands, and we look over next to us we see Cool Pops basking in the sun he deserves. Good guys are hard to find in this world, and I’d love to buy this one a drink!