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October 27, 2006
I’ve just been over to the mall to buy some crystal iced tea glasses that Macy’s practically gave me and was really blown away by all the skank stores I saw. Who in the world decided that women want to dress in the nightgown and underwear look all day? I’m a grandmother who has a brain, for heaven’s sake! I’m not wearing that stuff and I’m not buying it for others either. And, who in the world decided that six-year-olds ought to look like grownup skanks? Who buys this junk anyway? Where is the age-appropriate clothing for my little granddaughters? Have apparel buyers lost their minds? I’m certainly not buying any of this drek. Every time I venture out to the mall I come away with severe misgivings about what I see.
The word “skank,” by the way, isn’t even in my Webster, but I can tell you what it means in case you are wondering. It was a singularly descriptive word during my high school years (during the last century) and was applied to those girls who adopted the greaser look and were considered to be very fast with lapsed morals. Whether or not that last part was true really didn’t matter. If a girl looked skanky, she automatically got the whole rotten reputation part as well. It’s a good Southern word, too. I will never, ever consider the skank look to be fashionable. Maybe those skanks grew up to be fashion designers and their taste in dress is still in their mouths. Puh-leeze! How can you take someone seriously in the business world when she is standing there in what looks like her pajama top? I also hate to see little six-year old girls looking like they ought to be 21.
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Every year in this column I remark upon how early we see Christmas decorations in the retail world, and this year is no exception. In fact, this year gets the prize for rolling out the Christmas glitter about the time school started. I am so not ready to see this holidizing before we even see the approach of autumn! The early birds are going to get the best stuff as they always do, so by the time I’m ready to get out my Christmas list, the merchandise will be picked over and tired, having been hanging around since August. On the other hand, the most gorgeous Christmas store imaginable is The Courtyard at the Forum on Peachtree Parkway. Those beautiful decorations are already flying out of that store and I will admit to having bought some already. The Courtyard is also doing the Christmas Shop at The Forum where Santa will eventually be holding forth. Hopefully we won’t see him until after Thanksgiving! The Courtyard is worth the trip, Folks, even if you have to do a little driving to get over to Peachtree Corners. I can’t think of another place quite like it, not even in Buckhead. As long as the merchants are ready this early, I guess it’s the best time to do your holiday shopping. No crowds and you can get a place to park.
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We’ve had to have five big trees removed from the yard recently, five trees that we planted about twenty years ago. All of them had terminal diseases so we really didn’t have a choice. The Leyland Cypresses got bot canker and the Bradford pears got fire blight. All were goners. It was fascinating watching the tree guys drop those huge trees on a dime; they worked very fast. Then the stump grinder made short work of the stumps and our sprinkler system. That grinder chewed up the water pipes in quite a few places and we had a lot of escaped water. It really couldn’t be helped, however. If you don’t chase those Bradford pear roots, they will sprout up all over the place. It cost us far more to remove the trees than it did to put them in. Isn’t that the way of things? Be careful where you plant young trees!
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Election Day is coming up shortly and I do hope you all will get to the polls. We don’t get to decide very much this time, but each thing on the ballot is a choice we are privileged to make. Please make the effort to go vote. Not to vote is the way to get disinherited in my family.
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If you all are like me, you resist phone calls to collect money for charitable organizations that are made by paid solicitors. In these deals, the solicitors are paid first, and whatever is left over, sometimes precious little, goes to the charity that hired them. I have recently hung up on a call from the Georgia State Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police because for years they used paid solicitors to try to raise money to fund the good work they do. Upon a little further investigation on their Web site, however, I have discovered that as of January 2006 the GAFOP only use their own actual employees to solicit funds by telephone and by mail. A consultant evidently told them to bag the paid solicitors. So, in the future, if you get a call from the GAFOP, go ahead and listen. It’s probably going to take this group a while to eradicate the commonly held perception that they use paid solicitors.
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With this month of October, “Over Coffee” is officially ten years old. That is a lot of expresso, my friends. Some folks, like Ralph Reed and John Cornetta, probably think it’s far too much. I appreciate all of your comments over the years, especially the e-mails that say it’s time to write when I have slowed down. I am a gray-haired grandmother who pays attention to the news that is available to us all. My opinions seem to represent what many are also thinking, but do not take the time to say publicly. Thanks so much for reading! Hope all is well.
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