Aging Nicely #10… What could be worse than polyester?

Well, it happened today. I knew it had to happen sometime, I hoped it would never happen but I had been told that it happens to the best of us.

I was shopping with my favorite shopping buddy. We had met for lunch in Muldoon’s in Macy’s. I had some Estee’ Lauder promo to pick-up and we ambled through the first floor clothing sales on our way to the escalator to the second floor. She said she had to look at the 65% off rack and I said that I knew she had to…I half-heartedly glanced thru the rack and nothing caught my attention. She found a lovely shirt with lots of peach mixed into the print; peach is her color, so it was a done deal before we figured out the price.  We were not sure if it was a sale item before the 65% off, because it had not been marked down. We asked someone and they were not sure. They told us to use the scanner in lingerie. It was a good distance and we complained about how far we had to go for a bargain. When we got to the scanner, it was not working. After several attempts by each of us, I saw an unconnected wire and put the two pieces together…thinking myself very clever. It still did not work. We ambled back to the department where the shirt was found.  There was a woman on line in front of us who was buying a lovely print jacket. I had been admiring it on the ‘t’ stand along with an orange jacket. However, I stopped in my tracks when I saw the label on the jacket…Alfred Dunner. My mother had worn Alfred Dunner. She had matching outfits in every color for every season. Pants with elastic waists and ribbed polyester jackets with slits cut in the sides. I had sworn never to approach that department. As I was exclaiming about how shocked I was to be admiring  an item in this clothing line, my pal, who was in front of me made a shocking discovery of her own. Her blouse was also Alfred Dunner!  I made a few comments about either we were getting older or the line was becoming more fashionable and I got the attention of the woman who was purchasing the jacket. She said she thought it was beautiful and she was buying it for a friend. Then she came to the rack and demonstrated that it was reversible. “It’s like getting two for the price of one!” She exclaimed. It was also 25% off. A decent price, but not a killer bargain.  I was hemming and hawing when my buddy commented that the lady who had been buying the jacket for her friend paid $35.00…that was a killer bargain!  I was able to get it for that price by putting it on my Macy’s charge. The thrill of the bargain was only slightly eclipsed by the label on the jacket…but I will have to remove that…it’s reversible.