Kate Winslet and I Share an Unbreakable Bond – Wawa

Blogging, humor, lessons learned 2 Minutes

I’ve written about Wawa many times before, even devoting an entire blog post to this nearly mythical convenience store.

Here is the opening to that blogpost:

If you haven’t heard of Wawa, then just imagine what the ultimate convenience store would be like, and that’s Wawa. It’s better than 7-Eleven, Sheetz, or any regional convenience store chain you can think of. It’s a Philadelphia based chain, with stores in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and Florida. If you ever visit the Philly area, then Wawa has to be on your list of places to visit.

There are over 900 locations, and there seems to be no sign of slowing down.

I tell my freshmen students who are not from the area that one of their first tasks is to visit a Wawa, and many of them fall in love with the store.

Admittedly, I’m a little biased, since I grew up with Wawa and have been a frequent visitor to Wawa over the past 50 years (I’ve already been there three times this week). And to add some icing to the cake, the CEO is a graduate of Villanova’s School of Business.

Would you put more faith in an outsider’s opinion – someone who is not even from the U.S.

OK, let’s do that.

Kate Winslet, the British actress who reached global stardom from her role in the classic Titanic film. recently filmed an HBO miniseries (Mare of Easttown) set in Delaware County, PA, which is where I live.

I’ve read a few articles abut how much Kate enjoyed her time in the area, but two stories really stuck with me.

First, Kate seems to really take her job seriously.

Winslet insisted that the “Delco accent“, a version of Philadelphia English common in Delaware County, be used, despite being a particularly difficult accent to learn, because she felt the community itself was an important character in the story, and the authentic accent would help emphasize that. She claimed that learning the accent was so difficult that it caused her to “throw things”.

Second, Kate fell in love with Wawa.

The British actor said that she decided to subscribe to the Delco Times, Delaware County’s daily newspaper, to better understand her character. And one thing she noticed while reading it every day was that there were a whole lot of articles mentioning Wawa, a beloved gas station-convenience store-fast food chain headquartered in ― where else ― the town of Wawa, in Delaware County. Winslet quickly found herself incredibly intrigued. “It almost felt like a mythical place … Wawa,” she told the Los Angeles Times podcast “The Envelope” adding: “By the time I got there, I was like, ‘It’s real!’ Walking into a Wawa ultimately felt like, it was kind of an honor, in a funny way, because to me that was the heart of Delco. So to finally walk through the door of a Wawa; I don’t know why I felt like, ‘Oh, yes, I’m here, I belong. This is where it’s at. Wawa.’”

So there you have it; proof of Wawa’s greatness.

And if you are ever visiting the Philly area, and you decide to stop at a Wawa, get in touch with me. I’ll gladly buy you a coffee and a hoagie…

But be warned, it is additive…

P.S. Mare of Easttown (HBO) is a great show…

Published by Jim Borden

A 60-something guy trying to figure out the world, and his place in it. Happily married for 40-plus years, three wonderful sons. Accounting teacher, fitness enthusiast, blogger, reader.

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87 thoughts on “Kate Winslet and I Share an Unbreakable Bond – Wawa”

  1. If I am ever in the the area, I will certainly take you up on your offer!

    Also… Full disclaimer… I am an enormous Kate Winslet fan. Yet I had no idea that this series existed. For this information, I thank you! 🌺

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      6. That would be the Sheetz, for them. But are you sure Wawa is such a good store? It’s such a weird name. “Wawa” is one of the first words I learned as a baby. It came in handy when I was thirsty.

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      7. She interviewed him several times. I think the last time was right after he was diagnosed with MS. That’s when he confused to beating his girlfriends and drug addiction, and all kinds of other things.

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  6. I remember you blogging about Wawa before. I still have yet to see one, but I live on the west coast.

    The only thing better than seeing Kate Winslet in Wawa would be to reference it in her Academy Awards speech. “You might think that I’m going to credit my mom, dad, and those who inspired me to become an actress, but the real hero in my story is Wawa.”

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  8. i remember you fondly referencing wawa, and now this! i’m adding it to my list of places to visit in my travels. hawaii will just have to wait and move lower on the list!

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  10. Hmm. I feel this way about Kennie’s, a small, regional IGA grocery chain in and around Gettysburg. Although the appeal to me is that Kennie’s ‘sticks it to the big boys’ like Giant and Weis. Plus it’s employee owned. I’ve always assumed that Wawa is identical to Sheetz which in my mind is the best place to get Covid because for whatever reason, people refuse to wear masks there. I guess I’ll need to intentionally stop by a Wawa one day to understand the vibe. I don’t think there are any at all around central PA.

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    2. I am not familiar with Kenny’s, but it sounds like my kind of place. I have not noticed a mask problem in Wawa; hopefully you get to visit one at some point…

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  12. Jim, there is a bond between myself and Wawa in Maryland. There is one located in my wife’s hometown on the Eastern Shore, and we always find a few along the way. After I become a well-known writer (dream on), I just might be the newest Wawa celebrity.

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  13. At first I thought you were talking Canadian. Somewhere in the back of my brain an inkling of remembrance of some Canadian Wawa vibrated, but don’t ask me for details as only the name has surfaced. Never been to Philly, but if the opportunity ever arises, I will certainly check it out. Especially now since it so dear to Kate W.

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    1. there is a canadian link to wawa; hereis a blurb from its web site: “Wawa’ is a Native American word for the Canada Goose that was found in the Delaware Valley over 100 years ago.” The Delaware Valley is the area around Philadelphia…

      It’s a must place to visit to get the full Philly experience… 🙂

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  14. Wow Kate Winslet endorsing Wawa! I am going to have to keep an eye out for a movie star recommending Sheetz! LOL!
    Sheetz is at the end of our street but I did grow up with Wawa, soooo…. I might have to agree with you. 🙂 They did make great hoagies! Now I am hungry.

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    1. You may have to keep looking for a long time…

      One of the co-stars of the show Mare of Easttown really liked the Gobbler hoagie, which is in limited release around Thanksgiving…

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      1. Fightin’ words! Funny, but here in Wisconsin everybody loves Kwik Trip, in Iowa they think Casey’s is the best. Iowa people are crazy! I’m looking forward to making my judgement on Pennsylvania in the not too distant future.

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  16. It’s great to know you have that bond with one of our best actors, and that you have a mythical convenience store in your locality. As for Mare Of Easttown…I got bored half way through the first episode and haven’t tried it again…

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    1. maybe you didn’t give it enough of a chance:

      1. Lucy Mangan from The Guardian writing, “If you can have a defining performance this late in a career, this is surely Winslet’s. She is absolutely wonderful.”

      2. Mare of Easttown received critical acclaim. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the series has an approval rating of 92% based on 73 reviews, with an average rating of 7.97/10.

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      1. Maybe I didn’t, but it just seemed so similar to other series that I’ve tried and given up on. I gave it half an hour of my valuable time! It’s still running, and the series so far is on catch up, so maybe I’ll try again. And I don’t always agree with Lucy Mangan either 😉

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  19. Wawa, Sheez, hoagie come on I’m a Brit…haha…that aside I did start to watch Mare of Easttown…Kate Winslett, I love but even because of that I only watched an episode and a half and frankly not for me…I hope you are having a great weekend, Jim 🙂 x

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