CHRISTMAS COMETH

CHRISTMAS COMETH

Christmas came quickly this year. It seems like I was just at Walmart, and Kmart, and T.J Maxx, and all the other discount stores unmentioned. I know it’s not quite the chic thing to do, but it’s just insane to pay three or four times as much for the same things made in China.

Yesterday I went to a Target store that opened up in a nearby city. I got a slick looking red toaster someone special wanted for Christmas. It was a very cool looking, metalic red, toaster with little red lights on the settings. I couldn’t find this type of toaster anywhere else, and it was the one she really wanted. I’m kind of anxious to try it out. ( I got her other gifts too.)

I’m not much of a shopper. I know what I want, I go get , and go home. I honestly become overwhelmed in malls, and big box department stores. All the bright lights bother me. At times I’ve been temporarily blinded by all the glitzy , glimmering, glittery, lights in glass cases, and display windows. 20 years ago I had far more patience and tollerance for shopping , but now the only real fun I get from shopping is; when I find a parking space close to the store entrance. It’s not that I suffer from alzheimers , and I’m not a senior citizen yet, it’s just that I have a bad memory; when it comes to remembering where I parked my car. One year I left a mall, and spent 20 minutes trying to find my car. The mall was so big I forgot what parking lot I parked in. I could have sworn I knew where I had parked. I thought my car was stolen, and went back into the mall to tell security . I checked in with mall security, and told them my car was stolen. They asked what kind of car I had, and searched the parking lots with their security cameras. It was late and the mall was about to close . Most of the lots were nearly empty. The security guard laughed and said , ” Sir I think we found your car. Do you remember parking it in the Penny’s parking lot?” I thought for a moment and said, “No.” He then told me there was a car matching my car’s discription in the Penny’s parking lot. It was on the opposite side of the mall from where I thought I had parked. He said I wouldn’t have any problem finding it. It was the only car left in the lot. He let me look at a close up of the car on the closed circuit television. It was my car. I embarrassedly had to ask him where the Penny’s parking lot was. The mall was a gigantic maze with five or six main entrances, and I had no idea how to get back to that parking lot. He said he would take me there; since the mall was closing in 10 minutes. He led me through the mall, to the Penny’s store, and out the right exit. I sincerely thanked him, and walked to my car. I seldom go to malls anymore. I haven’t been back to that particular mall in 10 years.

I like to go to stores that I’m familiar with, stores like the local hardware store, the local liquor store, the local convenient store, and gas station. I like having the store clerks say hello, and know what I want before I ask them. I like seeing friendly, familiar faces; when I go into these stores. I’m not interested in stores that have a million things to buy. I am content with stores that carry the things I need , or want, and give me the least hassle. Traveling great distances for a day of shopping, in mazes of inside malls, just isn’t something I like to do. As another Christmas cometh, and (go ith), I am grateful for having a few discount stores nearby; that carry almost everything I need or want to buy , at reasonable prices I can afford, with parking lots situated at the front of their buildings, and cashier stations near their front doors. These stores are holiday season friendly, for people like me. They make it easier for me to find the store exit, and easier for me to remember, where I parked my car.

L.A. STEEL