National treasure Salena Zito hits another one out of the park in her article in the Washington Examiner entitled "What we lose by the closing of community department stores."
The crux of her very enlightened piece:
"For most of that building's storied 110-plus-year-old life, until Macy's took it 15 years ago, it was Kaufmann's department store: a place where, whether you were working-class parents or well-to-do parents, you took your babies to get fitted for their first pair of shoes, or purchased their communion dress, prom dress, wedding gown, back-to-school clothes, or bought them the sheets, furniture, toasters, and pots and pans they needed to start their adult lives.
It was also where young and old, rich or poor, went to the Adoria Salon to have their hair styled for the very first time, or have their first special lunch with their parents or grandparents at the Tic Toc restaurant.
And maybe even have their first job.'
In my neighborhood that store was Abraham and Strauss on Fulton Street. Sure there were a lot of other stores. Korvettes. Mays. Mcorey's. Martins. Still and all everyone went to A&S. You got your school clothes there. Mom would buy pots and pans and linens and just about everything Even electronics like TV's or the first VCR's. There wasn't all of these new fangled speciality stores that the hipsters revel in. You know like a store that sells olive oil exclusively. Just a department store filled what everything you needed. That delivered.
I remember right before Christmas when Mom would take us shopping. I was old enough to sneak off to the eight floor which was the toy department. I could check out the latest Aurora models. I remember I got my classic Frankenstien one there. Plus the board games. Risk. Stratego. Battleship. All of them on sale! Of course we only got them after Christmas but still it was fun to see all of the stuff you couldn't afford. That's what you did back then. That's why Uncle would always take me to the Boat show and we would look at all the stuff we would never had. It taught you humility. Envy. Greed. You know all the things you need to grow up a well rounded individual.
One of the highlights was the bridge.
That was what you walked across to get to the parking lot. That was way cool. You used to push the cart that had the TV in it till you got to the car and realized it didn't fit. So you put it in the trunk and tied it down. You were only going thirty blocks what's the big deal. So you had to ride with your head out the window like a dog so you could be sure it didn't fall out of the trunk. Good times.
Yesterday I came outside and I saw four trucks making deliveries. They were all from Amazon. They have these new private contractors who deliver instead of UPS. It is sort of like Uber in a weird way. No other deliveries. No other human contact. You never saw your friends mother who worked at the cosmetic counter and could advise you what to buy that girl you liked in the seventh grade. No old timer in the suit department to help you pick out your confirmation suit. No human contact Just a keystroke and a email.
This is why they want to close everything down because of this overblown coronavirus bullshit.. They want to isolate us. Keep us from making a connection with our fellow citizens. Divide and conquer. Don't give in to these bastards. Go out and patronize your local stores. Remember when they read to you from their book of elitist knowledge:
It's a cookbook.
