Tuesday, June 26, 2018

FINISHING THE YEAR... Odds & ends (Part 167t)

ENDING THE YEAR… Odds &ends (Part 167t)

In my mind it was a ’stretch’ to call where the store was located a “mall”… at least in the accepted sense of what constitutes a mall, even back in the 60’s. Malls have traditionally had at least two if not three “anchor” stores (large department stores) but this one only had a Penney’s. It was also different in that the stores were not an ‘island’ surrounded by a ‘sea’ of asphalt (for parking). It was actually a series of small stores surrounding a courtyard with a canopy over the walkways in front of the stores. Penny’s was more like a three story office building at one end of the courtyard. In any case, it was different!

Once inside the store it was certainly a different experience. The door we entered opened into a section designated for what I would call ‘house linnens’ with curtain and drapery offerings that led into bedding accessories. Once past that it was a whole area of men’s and women’s clothes. Naturally, being a female, Elle wanted to take a look… and look she did. I won’t take the time or space to go through that process but what I will tell you is that she got so caught up in trying on clothes she didn’t think to use the rest room. From the time she left our home until then it was almost three hours. When she realized it she had no idea where the ladies bathroom was located and by the time she found it, she was glad that I’d suggested wearing a full “package”. However, the result was that I was sent on a ‘mission’ to fetch her spares.

The ladies room, as strange as it may seem, was located on the second floor where kids clothing, housewares (dishes, pot, pans, small kitchen appliances) and lingerie were located. While Elle was cleaning herself up and changing into dry panties I perused the lingerie offerings, primarily the panties. There were the usual brands, Vanity Fair, Mojud, Gold stripe but I found the store brand, Gaymode, to be very interesting. The first thing I saw was that the crotch was almost as big as was on the VanRaalte panties that I liked. In the short time I had I noticed one major difference… the waist elastic. On the VanRaalte the elastic was encased with the nylon of the panties. You didn’t see the elastic at all. On the Gaymode panties the elastic was on the inside and the outside was nylon. It was a nice touch that set them apart. I’d just bought six pair of the VanRaalte panties from my friend, Judith, for Elle for Christmas so just looked… but stored what I’d seen, away for future reference.

One thing neither of of thought about was what to do with Elle’s wet panties if she had to change. So, I made a quick trip around the housewares section and found a plastic bowl with a snap on cover. Elle had resisted buying Tupperware at parties shown by her lady friends because of the high cost. The bowl I found was about half the price of a Tupperware one and was big enough to hold both of Elle’s washed out panties along with the plastic ones. I have to tell you though, it was a funny feeling walking around carrying that package.

One thing I didn’t expect to find was a whole section of tools, everything from tools for fixing cars to woodworking tools. One tool I really wanted was a large adjustable pliers. I let Elle know that was my Christmas present to myself. Toys were also on the third floor and that was really our ’target’. Elle had seen some games in the Penney’s catalog that she thought might be interesting. Even when things were really tight we always managed to come up with a couple of games that the kids could play. Now that the the older two were over eight years old there were a bunch of new games that we felt they could handle. Elle found them and I thought we were on our way. We were… at least I was… on the way to the station wagon with the games… while Elle stopped in the women’s clothing section. When she had stopped there after we arrived and hadn’t picked out anything I thought I was home free. In the time it took to put the packages in the station wagon and return she had three things over her arm. I started to say something but she put her finger up to her lips to shut me up and then reminded me that it was the money she’d earned that was going to pay for them. There wasn’t much I could say.

I’d mentioned that it was a unique mall and even though we had to go outside to see the other stores Elle wanted to take a look. Elle had never been big on shoes sticking mostly to fairly common, comfortable types. One of the stores was a shoe store with a unique display in the window. She spied a pair that she wanted to try on and, again, there was not much I could say. You have to realize that this was back in the 60’s and before discount shoes became the norm for buying shoes. It was back when there were shoe salespeople who would actually help you with finding your correct shoe size and then actually see that the shoes fit on your feet. When we went into the shoe area a nice looking young man came over to help Elle. She described the shoes she’d seen in the window and he seemed to know which shoes she wanted to try. But before he went to fetch them he had her stand on a metal plate, toggled a few knobs, told her what size she wore and then went to get the shoes. I was sitting next to her and saw a woman sitting across from us being helped by a woman. What I also saw was what made the trip to the shoe store worth while… a fantastic upskirt as the salesperson tried to slip one of the shoes on her foot. I’m sure the woman was unaware of my presence because after the shoe was on, she still sitting, proceeded to lift her leg up and straight out to admire it. I  certainly admired (and appreciated) the beautiful crotch shot. I don’t know how long she held it up there but by the time she put it down I was wondering why Elle hadn’t picked up on the situation… but she hadn’t. (BTW: the woman was about our age and definitely pleasing to look at.) Elle ended up taking the shoes and with the pleasant memory of the upstart view, I didn’t mind at all.

We ended up spending more time there than I’d figured on so we decided to skip one of the other two malls. The closest was the one near our branch. It had only been open a few years but with increasing population projected they were in the process of expanding it. Two city based department stores had just opened and being so close to Christmas they were very crowded. Upon arrival I reminded Elle that she better visit a restroom because she didn’t have any spare panties. It was easier for me to say it than it was to find one. With the new construction the primary restrooms had been moved.

To be continued...


No comments: