Intrinsic Shopping
I bought a new jacket recently. It has taken a number of years for me to identify all of my weaknesses but clothing has always found its way to the top of the list. A desire for such an inanimate object certainly cannot be my fault. Not sure how much intrinsic value to assign clothing, but my mother certainly felt there was plenty. As I have written before we take our cues in life from the earliest days and our parents are the role models. My mother had a terrific sense of fashion and design. She took great pride in presenting herself at all times. When she left the house she was always put together. Think J. Lo, only red hair, Scottish, and without a recording contract. Shopping was important and where you went shopping was equally important. Of course, there was no such thing as “online” shopping, brick and mortar stores were the essential components of the experience. In Los Angeles, Bullocks Wilshire was the pinnacle of elegant shopping. The department store opened in 1929 and was the first and one of the finest examples of Art Deco architecture in the United States. It was glamorous shopping for another era’s rich and famous or those that wanted to be or just felt comfortable in those surroundings. There was intrinsic value in the building and the experience. Mom was a full retail shopper. I think she was convinced that if it was on sale there was something wrong. In a way she was correct. Either the company ordered wrong; ordered too many; missed the needs and desires of their clientele or had to get out of winter merchandise for summer. In a sense, even today when something is on sale something went wrong. But for mom things on sale were just wrong no matter the reason. Today I struggle with sale items. Hard to erase the DNA. Going shopping with mom at Bullocks was a fun day. If things went well you might get to have something to eat in the Tea Room. Just walking in the store with the symphony of smells from the perfume counter to sales clerks to that just new smell of all the new merchandise. It was nothing short of intoxicating even if you were only ten.
One day when mom was in a good mood; the house was in order; no school, we went to Bullocks Wilshire to shop for clothes for school. I was really not part of the selection process, I was just the recipient. That was fine with me as I was more interested in the enormity of the store and all the activity. My mother had great taste and she made great choices but not always. It was on this particular day that mom chooses a pair of black pants; a sort of Wayne Newton goes to Las Vegas black and white shirt and a hi rolled collared cardigan white sweater. I hated this outfit. I am pretty sure I looked and felt like a 13-year-old Neil Diamond without the hair.
Ever notice how your subconscious creates the circumstance that allows you to accept the events of the day. For instance, you are about to leave a loved one, especially after experiencing a particularly wonderful time together. No one wants to leave the party when it is fun, so you create the circumstance that allows you to leave --- like an argument. Notice how easy it is to separate when you are in disagreement. Well, I was about to create a circumstance where I could gracefully depart from this horrible outfit without hurting my mother’s feelings.
My friends and I took the bus to school. There was a stop right by our house — convenient. However, that is not where Sandy Manker caught the bus. Since she was cute and my friends were not it made a lot more sense to climb over the chain-linked fence in my friend Pat’s backyard; jump down in the dirt and walk to her bus stop. On this particular day, it had rained the night before so it was ripe for the unconscious act to unfold. Sure enough, as I climbed the fence I slipped and fell conveniently ripping the black pants and landing in the mud with my Neil Diamond Sweater and Wayne Newton shirt. Problem solved ----- I never wore those clothes again.
Many years later I was cleaning out my closet on the way to college and there was that white sweater – I guess it had intrinsic value after all.