Phresh out

3:00 am, awakened, shocked speechless in retrospect by REI when I realized in my sleep that Duofold Underwear could not possibly have gone out of business. REI, the outdoor equipment and clothing cooperative that now sells long underwear – long sleeve shirts of merino wool at $50 a pop, but you can have a less expensive (should I say, the least expensive) model is only $32. The worse part is the salesman looking so trusting, and saying that Duofold is no longer made. My search shows that Duofold is alive and well, selling every weight and style long underwear for which one could hope.

It is the seamless violation (no pun intended), from the moment I attempt to walk in and I’m told that my service dog is not allowed, that at 2:00pm on Friday afternoon there is no manager available in the store (but when I offer to call the Police and file a harassment and discrimination report for interfering with the use of a service dog), lo and behold, Dan, just out of college and in from the Walla Walla store tells me he has an uncle who is disabled…

I remember my college weekends and the climbing trips to Mt. Shasts or Mt. Adams, Mt. Hood or Mt. Rainier that began with a foray to REI for last minute gear or stove fuel and then Safeway for bulk food. The last time I was in Safeway, the produce manager came up from behind me, grabbed my shoulder and told me I would have to leave because I had a dog (who incidentally, thought not required, is clearly marked as a medical alert service dog). I don’t know if it is better one week to be denied entrance altogether by REI and then lied to the next, or to be grabbed by the shoulder roughly from behind for using a living, medical assistive device that is better trained than 99% of Americans.

Next, I begin to coiunt my friends, and I wonder out of fear, ignorance, and avarice, which ones have lied to me in the past year displaying what we Quakers would now tolerantlly call Friendly quirks. It is more than disappointing, and more than the simple broken image of shattered nostalgia. It is the betrayal of a way of life that has become inconvenient.