An important message for Generation X
The
enormous mall that we live next to has so many clothing stores in it
that I would have to guess that rag retail is a profitable business.
Since I dislike shopping for clothes, I only go in these stores two or
three times a year when there is some big sale going on. And usually I
won't even go in, since it is a "sidewalk sale". Any normal items of
clothing that I need, I just happily purchase at Wal-Mart or other
department stores. Maybe it's just me, but I just can't see any reason
why something that is just fabric cut to pieces and then mechanically
sewn together should cost more than maybe $20 maximum. Any more than
this, and somebody is definitely trying to steal himself an undeserved
"tax" somewhere.
Recently some TV show said that the average person spends thousands of dollars each year to buy clothes. When my wife heard that, she had to laugh, but I reminded her that these vast masses of women make her Value Village shopping possible in the first place. Each item in this delightful chain of second-hand clothing stores costs maybe $5 or even less, so my wife goes there a few times a year to shop for all her clothing needs, coming back with a few big plastic bags full of various shirts, pants and jackets. And everything that she gets there is as good as new, as far as I can tell. As an average heterosexual male, I can't distinguish between the clothes that she buys in the "VV Boutique" and the clothes that are sold in "real" clothing stores. But I guess that they are the same clothes, just a few years older models.
Once at the library, I read an Evangelical Christian life advice book titled "How to serve Christ without embarrassing God" (or something like that, since that title doesn't bring up anything at all in Google or Amazon) which, against the stereotype, was surprisingly leftist in many of its recommendations for good Christian lifestyle. For example, the book adviced the reader to buy all clothes (except socks and underwear) at thrift stores. In fact, the few times I have been to VV Boutique, I have seen groups of some kind of Mennonite women there, who were perhaps looking for modest and inexpensive clothes. So if I did the same, I could lead a proper and humble life.
Unfortunately us manly men tend to buy fewer clothes to start with and then hold on to them until they fall apart, so the VV Boutique has no similarly rich selection of clothes for me to dabble in. Sometimes if you are lucky, you can find one good shirt, but shirts I already have more than I need. Once I found a pair of white 1970's disco-style bell bottoms that fit me perfectly and I thought were a hoot, but when my wife saw what I had purchased, she explicitly forbade me from ever leaving our home while wearing them. Another time I was casually browsing a 1970's joke book at the back of the store where they keep old books and magazines and such, and I was astonished to see how shamelessly racist many of the jokes in this book were, especially those that were set in "Harlem". (Now there's a name that I don't remember seeing in any article or blog post about racial issues written in this millennium.)
Recently some TV show said that the average person spends thousands of dollars each year to buy clothes. When my wife heard that, she had to laugh, but I reminded her that these vast masses of women make her Value Village shopping possible in the first place. Each item in this delightful chain of second-hand clothing stores costs maybe $5 or even less, so my wife goes there a few times a year to shop for all her clothing needs, coming back with a few big plastic bags full of various shirts, pants and jackets. And everything that she gets there is as good as new, as far as I can tell. As an average heterosexual male, I can't distinguish between the clothes that she buys in the "VV Boutique" and the clothes that are sold in "real" clothing stores. But I guess that they are the same clothes, just a few years older models.
Once at the library, I read an Evangelical Christian life advice book titled "How to serve Christ without embarrassing God" (or something like that, since that title doesn't bring up anything at all in Google or Amazon) which, against the stereotype, was surprisingly leftist in many of its recommendations for good Christian lifestyle. For example, the book adviced the reader to buy all clothes (except socks and underwear) at thrift stores. In fact, the few times I have been to VV Boutique, I have seen groups of some kind of Mennonite women there, who were perhaps looking for modest and inexpensive clothes. So if I did the same, I could lead a proper and humble life.
Unfortunately us manly men tend to buy fewer clothes to start with and then hold on to them until they fall apart, so the VV Boutique has no similarly rich selection of clothes for me to dabble in. Sometimes if you are lucky, you can find one good shirt, but shirts I already have more than I need. Once I found a pair of white 1970's disco-style bell bottoms that fit me perfectly and I thought were a hoot, but when my wife saw what I had purchased, she explicitly forbade me from ever leaving our home while wearing them. Another time I was casually browsing a 1970's joke book at the back of the store where they keep old books and magazines and such, and I was astonished to see how shamelessly racist many of the jokes in this book were, especially those that were set in "Harlem". (Now there's a name that I don't remember seeing in any article or blog post about racial issues written in this millennium.)
Harlem has seen its fortunes rise a bit in the past decade or so. Although it's still a lower-income area, it's no longer a convenient shorthand term for urban poverty and despair. Nor is Harlem a synonym for "black," as its Hispanic population has grown considerably and there's even a trickle of whites into the area.
NYC's poorest neighborhood is, arguably, the East New York section of Brooklyn, although the large housing projects scattered throughout the city are major concentrations of poverty. The Bushwick neighborhood which borders East New York to the west had been very rundown until the last few years, and a candidate for a worse-than-Harlem neighborhood, but now it's been "discovered" by trendy young people priced out of Williamsburgh to its west (and Williamsburgh itself was in bad shape until comparatively recent years).
Peter
Iron Rails & Iron Weights
Posted by Anonymous | 2:09 PM