Such a great piece. The class warfare is as on point as ever. On a lighter note, this brings me back to age fifteen, working at the last gasp Woolworth's in Cleveland. I split my time between feeding the budgies, hamsters and goldfish, and working at the lunch counter.
We are all become the Woolworth family: jittery, blotchy, innocent elderly people on terrifically constricted budgets, young black women buying armloads of normally prohibitively priced baby accessories, temp chicks with their plastic baskets filled with discounted cosmetics. Rise up!
this couple and the fading Woolworth brand its own melancholic "Triangle" of sadness even if the geometric forms of inequity now have propagated and morphed at this point into shapes we don't even have names or emotions for yet
I love this, from start to finish. It IS more relevant today than ever. Is Shalom with the same boyfriend still? It’d be shocking if she were. For that young woman to be amused by someone crying from gratitude to be wearing her discarded shoes… Geez. Your social commentary paired with your description of what old people might buy at a Woolworth is an example of your magic. It’s something about how you’ve closely observed ALL types of people and can paint a picture (!) of both the young and heartless and the old and poignant… You are a living legend and treasure.
Cintra Wilson is one of the best comic writers we have, but she can cut right to your soul when she feels like it. I don’t have light-up show-off sneakers (I’m more in the spotty old people who miss Woolworth’s category), but this makes me feel guilty about my books and records. Which is not a bad feeling to have once in a while.
Just *reading* this rendered me a criminally obese shrub troll! Sharing immediately with my entire family.
Such a great piece. The class warfare is as on point as ever. On a lighter note, this brings me back to age fifteen, working at the last gasp Woolworth's in Cleveland. I split my time between feeding the budgies, hamsters and goldfish, and working at the lunch counter.
We are all become the Woolworth family: jittery, blotchy, innocent elderly people on terrifically constricted budgets, young black women buying armloads of normally prohibitively priced baby accessories, temp chicks with their plastic baskets filled with discounted cosmetics. Rise up!
Apropos nothing at all, the café in Woolworths at the east end of Princes Street in Edinburgh sold the most fantastic doughnuts in the 1960s.
this couple and the fading Woolworth brand its own melancholic "Triangle" of sadness even if the geometric forms of inequity now have propagated and morphed at this point into shapes we don't even have names or emotions for yet
I love this, from start to finish. It IS more relevant today than ever. Is Shalom with the same boyfriend still? It’d be shocking if she were. For that young woman to be amused by someone crying from gratitude to be wearing her discarded shoes… Geez. Your social commentary paired with your description of what old people might buy at a Woolworth is an example of your magic. It’s something about how you’ve closely observed ALL types of people and can paint a picture (!) of both the young and heartless and the old and poignant… You are a living legend and treasure.
Cintra Wilson is one of the best comic writers we have, but she can cut right to your soul when she feels like it. I don’t have light-up show-off sneakers (I’m more in the spotty old people who miss Woolworth’s category), but this makes me feel guilty about my books and records. Which is not a bad feeling to have once in a while.
fantastic!
I always look forward to your stories, Cintra! You are one of the best!