What not to wear, even in Wal-Mart

This has been the week of amazing apparel -- not ours, but the stuff coming in the door. First, there's a large conference in town, so each evening, we get a flood of folks coming in the door for food, dressing very well. Suits, shirts with ties, dress pants, even down to little ones. It's nice to see families so dressed up.

They make a wonderful contrast to our usual crowd. OK, this is a store. Not a street corner, not a bedroom, not the beach. A sign to that effect might be a good addition to the entry.

If you were a parent, bringing your little ones into a store where we sell chemicals, automobile batteries, items in glass bottles, etc., wouldn't you insist that they wear shoes? I thought so. Still, every day, parents bring in little ones, barefoot, throw them into carts and start their shopping. Halfway through the store, little ones get restless, beg to get out of cart, and parents forget "no shoes, no shirt, no service." Better yet, put them in skate shoes so they can fall on hard concrete.

There's the usual mob of kids straight from the pool, still in suits. And in the evening, kids in pajamas and slippers. Sometimes not just kids -- it's a college kid thing, too. And occasionally adult women. Apparently, "I forgot something, and it wasn't just milk. It was too much effort to make myself socially acceptable."

None of them even draw a double take anymore. But a couple of folks did. The first were three sets of two girls who came through self-check. All about 19-22, with large hairdos, wildly-colored overdone makeup and odd layered dresses and heels. By the third set, the "Grease" track "Beauty School Dropout" was firmly planted in my head as I bit my lip to keep from laughing out loud!

But the week's badge went to the mom who was wearing green stretch shorts with purple flowers on the leg, about 3 sizes too small. They were so tight they outlined her crack and every wrinkle of varicose veins and cellulose. She was with a teen daughter. Now most teens are pretty oversensitive about appearing in public with their parents. If this one was, I give her an "A" for not keeping a 30 foot barrier between her mom and herself.

The circus is in town. It isn't at Wal-Mart. But it seems that way.