My friend Janice and I went to the mall this week. It’s been years since we’ve done that, because of CoVid. It felt like an adventure. On the drive there, we discussed election irregularities. Janice is a poll worker for elections, and we don’t know how irregularities could occur. Elections are very structured events, and every step along the way involves representation from both Democrats and Republicans. We don’t know how, exactly, or where in the process tampering could occur. (Our daughter, who works the polls in another city, doesn’t know either.)
Janice and I entered the mall through Von Maur, and promised ourselves a loop through the shoe department on our way out. Janice wanted to go to the Apple store to get a new band for her watch. Getting it took way longer than expected. She was all set, though: her new walker includes a seat. The Apple store doesn’t provide chairs; customers stand around until they complete their business or give up. Aargh. And if it’s tough on relatively able-bodied customers, what must it be like for staff? Folks on crutches? Pregnant women?
We visited five other stores, then swung through Von Maur’s shoe department. The best part of the Von Maur shoe experience is the clearance room. “I’m goin’ in,” I told Janice. “I’m right behind you,” she answered. There are shoes everywhere in the clearance room, on shelves affixed to the walls and on the floor, affixed to nothing. The room is stuffed with shoes, one shoe per pair. It is also full of eager hunters of shoe bargains.
This inevitably leads to conversation with other shoppers. “Ooh, this is so me—oh, no, it’s misfiled. It’s the wrong size.” “That’s a shame. What size are you looking for?” “This one’s the right size and so cute. You should try it on.” The clearance room is a heady experience, chatter swirling at ear level and shoes in motion up the walls and at your feet.
The trip home was quite wonderful. We took the back way, up South Industrial to Jewett, then winding around past St. Clare/Temple Beth Emeth, Pattengill Elementary, and St. Francis school and church. Seeing the neighborhoods again was a bit like seeing friends after years of separation. Most everything is as you remember it, but a bit more mature and with some changes here are there. The same went for Ann Arbor Hills, on the other side of Washtenaw. It was a pleasure to travel the old paths.
I told Janice I felt like a tourist, someone from away. I drove too slowly, but ours was the only car on the road through the neighborhoods, and Janice didn’t mind. In fact, when I looked over at her, I found her grinning, just as I was. The trip across town and back together felt like a trip down Memory Lane. Going to the mall felt like an adventure.
Our neighbor Cory was on a Detroit TV show yesterday morning. He was talking about the brewing program at Eastern Michigan University, which he cofounded, and about the awards the program’s students are winning for their brews. Everything went well. The communications person for EMU was pleased. Text accolades are coming in. People have been telling him he’s a natural.
“It only seems natural because preparing for it consumes your thoughts for days ahead of time,” Cory says. “No one seems to understand why I don’t like doing this. The president of the university thinks being on television is fun.” Cory, not so much.
We pressed him with questions over dinner, outside at the Corner Brewery. Yes, the whole process was highly organized, “a well-oiled machine.” Yes, he had to show up almost two hours before his appearance. No, there were no snacks. The little fridge in the room where guests wait to go on the air contained only water; someone came to unlock it while they were there. There was no makeup. He had submitted, ahead of time, a form that included the points he wanted to get across. The day of his appearance, he received a copy of the script the interviewer would use to ask him questions, so that he could plan how he’d make his important points within the framework of those questions.
“I tried to get out of doing this,” Cory says. “But the department really wanted me to do it, and so did the president.” As the TV spot was in the best interest of the department and the university, and would recognize students for their fine work, Cory did it. But he hopes he won’t be asked again any time soon.
5 August 2022