The Kid and the Green-Grocer, the Lady and the Dapper Tailor

Abstract

It will be a shared recollection for many that visits to the corner-store, as a child, were not without their occasional indignities. Some will no doubt recall the strict injunctions against loitering, the envelope or purse containing coins or bills held tightly in the fist, and the slip of paper on which was scrawled loaf of white bread or 1 doz eggs or (most embarrassingly and bewilderingly for the uninitiated) box of T*****. The words Send the kid opened the door to adventure as well as to vulnerability. Don't let Mr. M**** cheat you now! More recently, some of us may have experienced the adult equivalent perhaps of the child's na?vet?, in the ill-fitting fit of that dress or hat or suit, deliciously lampooned in the British comedy series, Are You Being Served, but familiar to all who would conceal a naughty bulge under a size 10 instead of 16 skirt. My, how trim you keep yourself, Madame; No, sir, you don't want to let those shoulders droop too far; We'll tuck in that wisp of hair-it makes you look 'younger than springtime,' if I may say so. Appearance being such a tenuous thing, as flimsy as gossamer and our willing self-deception, we are as ready to believe flattery as to pay the small tailoring firm on the corner for a handsome compliment. The local hair-stylist knows that too, when she adds just a touch of color, in order to keep our few strands of gray coming back for more. All this has the sound of That'll be $3.95, Sally: you only get five cents change or Tell your Mom the supplier has raised the price of eggs. Vanity or ignorance, like innocence, is a natural breeding ground for certain forms of humiliation. One might wonder how indeed we ever learn to feel a sense of dignity at all.