APRIL 14th -- Another Reason to be Grateful for the Interwebs



On this day in 1902, James Cash Penney, Jr. opened a dry goods store in Kemmerer, WY. with two partners, in the precursor to what would eventually become J.C. Penney’s department stores. I am by no means a proponent of shopping. In fact, if I am at the mall for over an hour I start playing the plot to Ferris Bueller's Day Off in my head in an effort to escape the misery. Because that is a great escapist movie. Dude led all of Chicago in “Twist and Shout.” I don’t blame J.C. for my malady. Man was just doing his thing. And it’s not like I have any ill-will toward J.C. Penney’s specifically. It’s nice enough as far as department stores go. I don’t like places that are too nice anyway. Kind of like people. When people are too nice, I don’t trust them. I feel they got some secret ulterior motive. I'm not saying they are set on world domination, but if someone is smiling for over 90% of the time in which you deal with him/her, they are hiding something. It might be something as small and insignificant as feeling guilty about cheating on an exam in the 8th grade, or he/she might be having an affair with your best friend. Or maybe they are just really happy, and I’m a cynical bastard. Either way, if a store is at least a little worn, I don’t feel like I’m in a museum. True, I would rather been in a museum than in a department store, but I don’t learn anything in a department store. Other than what size jeans I need or whether steel-blue is flattering color for me. It is. Basically, the moral here is--while I admire a self-made man like J.C. Penney, department stores just give me yet another reason to be grateful that Al Gore created the interwebs.

This day has been Marked.

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