2021 Life Logs, Day 235: Shopping Spree with the Goldpebbles
Date: Monday, August 23, 2021
Weather: Mostly Sunny, Rain Late; High Temp 82, Low Temp 71 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
You know your grandsons are growing up when I am the one that wanted to go to the beach to play and they are the ones that ones that wanted to go shopping for clothes. And they knew exactly what they wanted. Ollie wanted Columbia shorts and shirts. Sam wanted Nike shorts, t-shirts, and soccer cleats. And Jonah wanted Nike or Adidas soccer cleats. He has enough hand-me-downs from Sam that he doesn’t have to worry about buying school clothes this year. The Wrentham Outlet sounded like the one place that might have all of these things, so off we went with masks and Heather’s credit card in hand. I became the mode of transportation instead of the adult forcing kids to go look for back-to-school clothes. When did this change come about?
I think I can speak for the boys in saying that we had a good time. Since Sam has a phone, we could split up and stay in contact via text. We decided on a place to meet if our phones failed (the Lindt Chocolate store—yum!!), walked past it to get our bearings and then on to the Nike outlet. On the way there was a great children’s climbing playground. It was too crowded for the boys to try out, but they thought it was a great idea to have a play area in the middle of an outlet mall. When we got to Nike, there was a long line to enter, so Sam and Jonah waited in line while Ollie and I walked to the Columbia outlet. He wanted shorts, but the closest we could find were long pants that zip off above the knee to make shorts. He decided that was a good deal as he could wear the shorts when it is hot and add the zip-ons when the weather gets colder. Then he saw the type of Columbia shirts granddad always wore. He loved the colors, one bright blue shirt and one bright green one. The shirts are long-sleeved, but you can roll up the sleeves, so he bought one of each. Not cheap, but he was so pleased with his choices. When we were walking back to the Nike store, I got a text from Sam saying that he and Jonah found nothing at Nike and were now in the Burton store. Their thinking was that if you can’t find school clothes and soccer cleats, you might as well get ready for snowboarding this winter and Burton is the place to do that. Sam found a wild pair of snowboarding pants and some t-shirts that he just had to have. Then it was on to Adidas. Sam and Jonah tried on pair after pair of soccer cleats, but in every case, the ones they really liked were not available in their size. Jonah found the cleats of his dreams, but they were a half size too long. They were $250 cleats on sale for 50 percent off because they were last pair of that style. He was disappointed but took it in stride and we decided to give up outlet shopping for the day. We made one last necessary stop at the Lindt Chocolate store to buy a sampling of truffles to eat while we traveled on to the next exit on the way home to a store called We Got Soccer. Jed had suggested we look there for cleats and Sam was successful. He found a pair of Nikes that he loved. So did Jonah, but Jonah’s weren’t on sale and were insanely expensive. He made the decision to try to find them cheaper online and bought a soccer ball instead. Sam and Ollie also decided to buy soccer balls and I drove home with three happy boys. And I have to say, it was more fun than I have ever had shopping.
