The longest and craziest holiday shopping experience of my entire life took place about 35 years ago. I had only been married for a couple of years and we didn’t have any children yet. My parents live about 1000 miles away from us and we had gone home for Christmas. We arrived late in the day on December 23. The next day we planned to go shopping for a few last minute gifts.
My mom was very excited to hear that we were going shopping and asked if we could pick up a few items for her. I said yes, not knowing what was in store. Mom wrote a really long list of very specific items: beige driving gloves, blue pinstriped dress shirt size large, you get the idea. So off we set on our mission.
When we arrived at Indian Springs mall in Kansas City, I quickly realized that we were in big trouble. There were so many people and everything was so picked over that there was no chance in the world we would find such specific items. But we tried anyway and tried and tried some more.
JC Penney: no beige gloves. Sears: no blue pinstriped shirts. Montgomery Ward: nothing on the list. We found items to fill in our own list, choosing from what was available. But we couldn’t find any of the items from Mom’s list at any of the stores at Indian Springs.
This was long before the days of cell phones and free long distance. I made phone call after phone call from the phone booth in the center of the mall to Mom. “No beige gloves, Mom.” “Well, try for black.” Back into the store, check the displays, nope, no black gloves either.
Back to the phone booth, “Sorry, Mom, no black gloves either, only bright blue or purple.” “Yuck! Then how about a black scarf instead?” Back we went from store to store, searching in vain for a black scarf. Royal blue, yes. Red, yes, in every shade. Off white, yes. But no black. Back to the phone booth, “Sorry Mom, no luck with a black scarf. How about off white or royal blue?” “No, white would get too dirty and blue won’t go with your sister’s coat.”
What should have been an hour or two long shopping event turned into an all day long adventure. I’ve never been so tired in my whole life. But I’d do anything for my mom so we kept on going. We left the mall and headed downtown. From store to store we searched but no luck. Finally we walked into a little boutique shop and there it was, a single black scarf. No box or special gift wrap but it was a scarf and it was black so I grabbed it up.
We eventually found substitutes for most of the items on Mom’s original list and the rest got cash in a card. But wow, what a shopping nightmare! Christmas Eve shopping is not for everyone and that one time was enough for me.