A Man Shopping
One thing I carried into adulthood from my developing years was that I was never exposed to anyone who viewed shopping as entertainment. My mom went to the grocery store, and clothes were preferably obtained from older cousins or, in my sister's case, from my grandmother's sewing machine. Whatever clothes were to be bought were purchased in August, right before school started, with the unspoken hope that growth spurts would be minimal. I started buying my own clothes the summer I was 14 when I had my first full-time job.
In high school, in the early '80s, I will admit to hanging out at the mall, but it wasn't to go shopping for anything more than something from Record Bar or, in my case, a science fiction paperback from Waldenbooks. Any other money spent would be for a hot dog and a drink at Orange Julius.
I struggled with alcohol earlier in my life, and during those periods, I tended to be very isolated. When I got sober for a number of years during my twenties, I remember being amazed that I could get out and buy myself a pair of jeans. I wore a uniform to work, so it wasn't like I needed to shop to keep from being naked in public or anything; I was just so used to never going anywhere that when I had the freedom to get out of the house that sobriety provided, I was amazed at being able to do the littlest things. I'll always remember that.
Of course, commerce has changed over the years. There aren't record stores to go to anymore, which is a shame. The used bookstore that I went to for 40 years closed recently. I bought hundreds of comic books there as a kid. My own children grew up going there frequently, and I was even able to take my grandchildren there before it closed. Once I was looking at a book in the store and found that there were dozens of cannabis leaves pressed between the pages. The clerks were not happy with me when I started pulling them out at the register. These days, we are left with nothing locally but big-box bookstores, but I still take my grandkids there because that's what we do with kids.
When I was cycling a lot, I went through bike parts like crazy. During the summers, I rode 1,000 miles a month and had to replace my tires every four weeks. I always used my local bike shop (LBS) instead of Amazon. I looked forward to the sales they had on winter gear held right before spring. I depended on the mechanics (referred to as wrenches) at the shop, and on my days off, I would go down there with boxes of doughnuts for them. Half the employees in the shop were just local cyclists who hung out there so much they got offered jobs. I never reached that category, but it was close.
These days, the only shopping I enjoy is the weekly trip to the supermarket with Wonder Woman. It's fun, we don't dawdle, and she lets me put whatever I want in the cart. Everything else we need comes from Amazon, and she is the designated buyer for our house. I'm easy to shop for. I only wear one kind of pants, and for the past 10 years, all I've worn to work (by my own choice) are black polo shirts. If I need anything else, I just tell her and she gets it for me. At one time in my life, I liked experimenting with technology, but I get to do enough of that at work now. I don't even have any computer parts places like CDW or Tiger bookmarked anymore.
I may be a stereotype, but I am a happy stereotype, and I have everything I need.
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