The Art of Shopping.....yet another dwindling institution

As we progress further and further into the abstract world of technology, we often lose touch with traditional and ancestral practices. Routines that once separated us from the uncivilized hunters and gatherers of the world are slowly being eroded from our memory banks.

The one thing that made us conqueror of all in the free world, second only to having an opposable thumb, was not only the ability to shop, but the knowledge of knowing how to shop.

For those that can remember back that far, the shopping experience was a long anticipated adventure. Young girls and occasionally little Skeeter boys would dream of the upcoming trip as they looked through their closets for their best slacks or dresses, their crisp shirts or blouses and their shiniest of shoes, often black patent leather for the girls and sometimes the boys would sport a bow tie.

The mothers would often dress their young daughter with the same ensemble that the mother was wearing or sometimes if there were sisters, they would both wear the matching attire. From hat, sometimes with a veil, to scarf, to purse and to the obligatory white gloves they set the pace for a fun and exciting day.

And then they would head out to shop.

Keep in mind, shopping wasn't necessarily buying. Shopping was browsing. Shopping was trying on items and looking into the mirrors that gave almost a full circle of presentation from all sides. The moms would smile, the little girls would beam but by then, the little Skeeter boys were becoming bored and they would make faces in the mirrors and try and see how far they could see around their backs.

As the day wore on, the mothers would offer tips to her young charges on the importance of different fabrics such as the softness of cashmere or the fragrance of leather. Sometimes the little Skeeter boys were left momentarily as the mothers and their older daughter would venture into the dressing room taking along more intimate clothing. The little boys or little girls left behind would often receive a soft command from within saying, "Skeeter or Mary or Alice or whomever, "Go get the saleslady".

The experienced well-dressed, salesperson, expert would enter the dressing room and after a few hmmms and ummms would leave and come back and then saunter forth with more intimate items. Finally all would exit with smiles on everyone's faces except for the young teen whose face showed only crimson cheeks and a half-smile.

My first exposure into understanding that shopping was an adventure, an event, rather than just a trip to accumulate goods was later in life when I took on an extra job selling ladies shoes at Marshall Fields, a world-wide store, known for the latest in women's fashions. Simply stated, I sold ladies shoes. Trouble was, I later found out, woman tried on shoes, lots of them, different styles, different designs, sometimes even different sizes. But that's what they were there for...they were shopping, but not buying. It was truly an Art how they took something as simple as leather, thread and glue and turned it into a show. The young children would eagerly await their turn to try on their first heels as the little Skeeter boy played with the metal device that measured feet as he imitated the salesperson as he straddled the little footstool.

So much of what we learn isn't always from books or lectures, it's from watching someone we trust and try to emulate them. But now, mothers teaching the youngsters this mysterious and time honored tradition of shopping is now in jeopardy. Technology has now taken over.

One can sit in their easy chair as they browse their phone, or tablet or laptop and simply say, "Siri, I need a pair of black leather pumps, with 3 inch heels, a beaded black clutch, a blue scarf and I need it by Tuesday. Also, I have coupons." Even the weekly shopping trip to Walmart is now being replaced with a simple APP that allows you to place your entire shopping list in someone else's hands, the Personal Shopper, to have your items ready for pick-up without ever leaving your car...or simply having Uber deliver the groceries.

How will the children learn to pick the ripest melon, the ripest or not-ripest avocado? Even grocery shopping is becoming a lost Art. I know, I know many of the younger moms and dads are saying GREAT!. My only concern is how will the next generation learn to pick up that tomato and simply by smelling and sniffing, they know they have exactly want they wanted.

Is it truly an Art, this in-store shopping phenomon? Is it soon to be a lost Art?. Sadly, I think so. The malls keep closing their stores, the Saks, the Maceys, the Neiman's all are closing up shop and turning to technology to sell their wares. The days of Mother and daughters wearing their white gloves  and carrying their purse for a day of fun and learning are now over.

The children will learn their own way, and, well...that's okay...even for me. I am sad though that the touch of cashmere and that fragrance of leather may never be experienced  the way we first learned while walking through the stores.

The young girls will grow up and be great shoppers on their own and in their own way. And, the little Skeeter boys, they'll  be fine too. Heck, they never really shopped anyway.....they just learned from their dad's to just go in and buy, the heck with that shopping stuff.

A reminder of the "Circle of Life"

As the first taste of Winter from a blast of cold air and wind blows through Texas this morning, I'm reminded of how one's life begins with just needing the bare necessities and slowly leaves with just having simple needs.

I have succumbed to yet another sign of old age......It's funny how just the simplest of things, like a change in the season reminds one of how our bodies are changing.

We start off as little infants with booties and as we move into the Autumn and Winter of our lives and suddenly we find we are completing that Circle of Life and we need booties again. Yep, I'm just getting older.

Oh, I've done most of it now. Cataract surgery, gray hair, liver spots, loose skin and wrinkles under my eyes.....but now, now the dreaded sign of really getting old......COLD FEET!

I haven't worn slippers since I was a little Skeeter kid growing up in Dayton, Ohio. The winters up there sometimes would call for several feet of snow and sheets of ice. As a child, I loved it. I don't ever remember being cold when playing outside, maybe because I was reminded every time I went out, "Tommy put your hat and gloves and boots and scarf on" or maybe as a kid, we had so much body heat from playing in the snow we never noticed it.

I do remember the cold though at night or on the weekends after coming in from a day of playing in the snow or sledding, or maybe waking up on a Saturday morning and going downstairs to watch cartoons on the tiny Emerson TV in the living room,

The only things to keep my feet warm were these Indian-looking kind of mucklucks with leather soles. They were warm, but oh, how they itched. I guess they were made from wool and I would scratch and scratch until my ankles would bleed. I decided then and there, I would just tough it out and not wear anything on my feet unless of course Mom came into the room and spotted my bare toes.

But now, as I come full circle, I've decided to do something I haven't done in over 60 years. I'm gonna get some slippers. Some warm slippers that will be somewhat fashionable, possibly even sexy but most important, they will be warm. And NOT made out of wool.

So, Mother Nature, "bring it on". I'll have warm feet and just sit in front of the fire and remember how as a child I didn't have a care in the world, well except for itchy ankles.

New and even more exciting challenges await me...

I'm embarking on yet another adventure. This one is travelling to the world of electronics. It's a land that isn't totally foreign to me for I have had a keen interest in it even going back to my young Skeeter days.

I guess my first exposure was when my oldest brother, Dave, an Electrical Engineer himself, had all sorts of equipment that lit up his bedroom.  He had everything from oscilloscopes to ham radios including something my friend, "The Jer" and I referred as his "shock machine".

I may have written about it previously but it was simply a device that had two orange juice cans that we would hold in each hand that were wired to a transformer and Dave would entice us to hold on for as long as we could as he slowly increased the voltage. "The Jer" always could hold on the longest, either because he was braver, or had a higher pain threshold. Regardless, I always had an interest in all of the electronic gadgets.

Fast forward to some 60 years later and here I am refreshing my brain with all of the different Laws of Electronics including Ohm's Law, Coulomb's Law, DC Circuit Laws and many more. And why, you might ask?. Well, because I just love to learn things and as the world is on a fast-paced race to automating everything we do and particularly doing it with a Smart Phone, I want to be on the forefront.

I've joked before that if people could wipe their butt with a Smart Phone, they'd probably do it. And, quite frankly I love the ideas that shoot in and out of my head-brain as I think of new ways to automate everything around me.

I mean, how cool is it as you get to work, or on vacation or anywhere and you ask yourself, "Did I shut the garage door?" Well, now all I have to do is turn on my WiFi camera from my phone and if I see the garage door is still open, a simple app closes it.

But I'm taking it even further. I'm not buying these finished products. I'm building them from scratch. Well, that is along with Dave's help.

In my pool business more and more customers are wanting to automate their equipment, having things like their spas turned on and heated by the time they get home or having their waterfalls dance to lights and music. Sure, that equipment has been out there for a few years. But it was all a propitiatory mystery. Now, I can build it myself for just a mere fraction of the shelf cost.

But why, why do I want to go to the trouble of building it rather than buying it. It's because I want to use my brain. I don't want to sit and simply get old. I have writing that stimulates me but now I have a new world of electronics that stimulate me, sorta like that shock machine that I used to hold onto when I was a kid.

If anyone has a suggestion or an idea of something they need, let me know.I can make it for you.

My first project has been simply making a blinking light and turning it on and off from anywhere in the world. Simple?  Yes. But if you can make a light blink, you can do anything.

Another of the world's greatest myths unveiled...

I have lived most of my 69 years on this earth trying to do the right thing. Sure, I don't necessarily follow the rules per se, but I have always been a law abiding person who for the most part tried to live my life on the positive side of the good/bad line.

Growing up and even as an adult, I accepted the rules and regulations as truth. If I was told the earth was round, well then, I believed it was round without ever venturing to the end of the horizon to see if I would drop off into space. 

I always believed, as I was told, that the sun rose in the East and set in the West. Although, it wasn't until later that I found out the sun didn't actually rise and fall but the Earth rotated and it made it seem like the sun was rising and setting.

And yes, there were times, that even if I did know the truth, well maybe I didn't want to believe it at the time, but deep down I knew I was just fooling myself. Things like drinking cheap wine and thinking I really wouldn't get a hangover headache. Or thinking that maybe Mom wouldn't smell cigarette smoke and beer on my breath when I came in late at night on a high school weekend. They were truths and they stood the test of time.

But today, I found that one of the truths that I believed in all of my life has now been unveiled to me as an untruth. A simple myth.

I have spoken of or written of my oldest brother, Dave, many times on this blog. His
brilliance is somewhere in the stratosphere, yet he often comes to me with questions on how to solve certain problems of the universe. Sometimes Academia needs to walk hand-hand with Practicality.

Dave and I have been working on several projects together and today it involved DC Current. I won't go any further that that, BUT, he told me something , which I in turn, I had to do and find out for myself.

Did you know, the in the old-timey type flashlights, that you could put the batteries in backwards, assuming they all went the same direction, and the flashlight would still work. Yep, it's true. If you don't believe me, try it for yourself.

Now, keep in mind, that's for the old-time electronic things, today most of our devices are POLAR sensitive, what that means is "Do it the way the instructions say".

But to think all of my life, I put batteries into a flashlight or into a simple device by following the directions and I could have followed MY rules and had done it my way and it still would have worked. This all may sound mundane and simple to many of you, but these were truths that I believed. I held these Truths to be Self-evident.

So today, even though I'm a lot older, a lot more mature (well, sorta), maybe, just maybe I'll once again be a little more adventurous. Maybe I'll go back to taking the road less traveled.

I'm not disappointed. Actually, I feel some exhilaration in knowing that even in the Autumn of my life I am still learning new things. Yes, some aren't as important as others but some things are pretty cool, and Dave and I are on to some new and exciting inventions.

And, did you know that about 20 years ago I was developing a GPS bracelet even before people could even spell GPS, well I mean they could spell GPS of course, but they didn't know what it was. I had the idea for a GPS bracelet that could be used to find lost seniors or kids or even doggies. I never followed up. But, there are plenty of others things out there. And now that I feel a sense of challenge knowing that maybe I just have to believe in myself and not take everything for Gospel truth.

OK, so, in conclusion, be careful on some of the new electronic devices, you might want to double check on putting those batteries in backwards, you could cause the device to run backwards and who knows what might happen. But for those old-timey things like flashlights. You'll be ok. Try it!

How Playboy Magazine Changed My Life...

(Editor's Note: With the passing of Hugh Hefner, founder of Playboy magazine,  I'm reminded of an event that had a major impact on my life)


No, no, no... all of you who just couldn't wait to read this story after seeing the headline, I am NOT confirming your suspicions that you have always had of me. I can hear you right now...."I KNEW he was a pervert."  Well, that may be true, but it has nothing to do with this story.

When I was a young boy slowly maturing into puberty in Dayton, Ohio, most of my friends were one or two years older than me. I always seemed to run around with friends older than me partly I guess because I was the youngest of three boys and well, I guess maybe I acted a little bit older for my age. And, running around with older kids, I guess one of the experiences that we all came across at some point in our lives was exposure (pun intended) to adult magazines.

Did I look at them?  Of course. Wide-eyed and staring. But Playboy was much more than a "dirty" magazine. It came out monthly and for the life of me, I have no idea how we ever got a copy. I do know that it seems that the first Friday after the magazine was in our hands, I generally had to spend a little more time saying my penance after going to confession at Our Lady of Mercy. I think the nuns always kept a stopwatch on me and tried to determine where I ranked in oneryness with the rest of the class. If I found myself running over my normal time limit of having to say a few extra Our Fathers and Hail Marys for some of the pictures I looked at in Playboy, well, I would say them faster or maybe tell God that "Hey, I'll catch these last few prayers when I go to bed". He always understood. He knew He had big plans for me.  I didn't want to arouse any suspicions with the nuns.

I don't think the nuns ever caught on to my crafty way of keeping my penance praying down to the same ole' 10 minutes. Which could have easily been a record back then.


Well, let me preface again by saying, I truly did look at the magazines to read the articles, kinda, sorta. And back then Playboy was the first "sophisticated" men's reading material available. Sure there were pictures of tata's and popo's, well actually, I don't remember Playboy having pictures of popo's back then. That was absolutely verboten. It was just tata's if I remember correctly.

But still I was reading the articles.... Well, those and the letters to the editor, and the cartoons by great artists like Shel Silverstein and of course the Playboy Party Joke section. I still have two jokes in my repertoire that I tell on occasion that I first read in Playboy almost 60 years ago.

The articles were really fascinating. I remember one that was about, well this stuff and the writer was talking about how this was pretty neat and people were going to find it interesting. And then there was this other article about having this something or other and how if you did this or maybe that it would react like.....ok, ok, I'm busted. I didn't read that many articles. However, there was one annual story that always got my attention, and this was the one that changed my life.

At 17, I was a senior at Fairview High School and like many of my classmates I wasn't sure where I would be the following year. We had the Vietnam War looming over us and with it the mandatory draft. So that meant either deferring the draft into the Army by going to college or enlisting. That was it people. Hard to believe huh. I figured I'd just hang around Dayton and wait on my Draft Notice.

But then came that article. That article in Playboy that would change my destiny. The article that simply by chance I discovered in between the pages of Miss April and Playboy's College Girls. It was Playboy's ranking of the ten top party colleges in the country. And, the University of Oklahoma was number 1. I decided right then and there, I was going to college. I was going to the Univ of Oklahoma, a 1,000 miles from home. Although I couldn't even buy beer yet, nor even buy a Playboy magazine at that age, I knew I was headed for bigger and better things.

After that, I always read the articles in Playboy before even looking at any of the pictures. I knew that the written word was much more important than any picture of some naked girl.

I majored in Journalism, I wrote for the college newspaper, I wrote and edited stories in the service. I stayed in the field for some years after that. And now, well I continue to write. All because of a iconic magazine that happened to have some great articles in it in addition to some great photos. And that is how it all began.

I had a wonderful English teacher in high school, Ms. Dorothy Herbst. One of her favorite sayings was, "Every grain of sand affects the tide". I guess Playboy magazine was a grain of sand for me.

                                                                                     -30-