A VOW: I will no longer shop at Cauz For Pawz. What happened, you ask?…read more
I was in the area today and so dropped by to shop to expand my budding my costume pearl collection (see pic), the beginnings of which I found at Cauz For Pawz.
THE DEMAND. However today, strangely, the requirement to shop at Cauz For Pawz was put my wet $250 black umbrella in a garbage can. It is well-made; it has been through everything. I bought it in London years ago. I probably will be buried with it - if I don't lose it. Anyway, I was harshly told by the brown bobbed hair shop-keep that I have to FIRST put my very expensive umbrella in an unsecured black garbage bag in a trash can, along with other wet black umbrellas, by the front door.
MY CRIME. Instead of risking my umbrella being taken by accident, I offered to shop inside at door standing on the doormat in front of the costume jewelry counter since the shop-keep, an angry middle-age woman with a brown bowl-cut hairdo I've never seen before (I think?), was standing behind the counter right by the front door.
I politely said I will stand on the doormat by the front door and look at the tray that has the costume pearls. She stated emphatically I would "not be allowed to buy anything" at Cauz For Pawz until I put my umbrella "in the black garbage bag" at the front door.
I thought: "Should I risk my expensive umbrella being taken by accident or by mistake?" The answer was of course, "No." So I said, "Thank you, I will leave." I left. The middle-aged bobbed shop-keep yelled something as the door closed, but I didn't hear what was said.
A SPECULATION: The issue, I believe, was not about my race or my sex. You see, when you are treated as a minority as I sometimes am, one of the first things you tend to consider when someone you never met is immediately hostile and disdainful without "cauz," is to consider the possibilities of "Why?"
After all, the shop-keep did bark at the humble, quiet black woman who had entered before me. The brown bob proved she could be nice to the customer who had arrived before me and the other woman. He was lucky, he had none of my markers (I am assuming the issue was about markers). Her interaction with him proved she could be helpful, ask probing questions, and be solicitous.
ALL ABOUT CLASS? However, I deduced that the vitriol and hatred must be because me and the other woman were not wearing tweed like he was. So, I have concluded at this point that issue was one about class. That is: "Who has money and who doesn't."
But sometimes a guess can be wrong, right?
While I was in Cauz For Pawz for the last time looking into the eyes of that bobbed-headed woman filled with rage because....I was wasn't obeying her, I knew there was nothing I could say to change things. For a second I was tempted to say in my defense:
"I've shopped at Cauz For Pawz before spending quite a bit of money. I have bought many things here that I really liked. Or,
"My umbrella is very expensive and I don't want to lose it."
WORKING CLASS. But if my deduction is correct and it was all about class, then she is right: My ancestors were servants, farm labor, enlisted soldiers, laundry women and dock workers. My class is low to some people but to me I come from the best of the best. My ancestors were hard working honorable people who gave me my intelligence and morality. It was they who instilled in me the ethics I hold to this today.
But if the shop-keep-brown-bob is correct, that costume jewelry sales should only be the realm of "the right sort," then I must agree that she correctly damned me to never be allowed again to buy costume jewelry at Cauz For Pawz because my origins are truly poor.
In the middle-age shop-keep's defense, I did look pretty rough today when I came into Cauz For Pawz: The rain had frizzed my pinned up hair. My left jaw was slightly swollen (maybe it looked I was just in a brawl?) due oral surgery I just had. My button down shirt under my pullover was indeed untucked.
However, I can sometimes be viewed as "the right sort" and I can clean up somewhat (see pic) which is why (after all, it must have been why) the other ladies, the kind ones, before this one at Cauz For Pawz, were super nice, the ones who had went out of their way to help me buy beautiful vintage clothes, even a pair of French riding boots (I love them!) that I truly don't deserve.
The kind and helpful ones who even put my handbag (that contained my expensive black umbrella) SECURELY behind the shop's counter so I could freely shop for more cool stuff!
THE DECISION. But I was shocked by the overt hostility of that judgmental middle-aged brown bob haircut. I decided to find another vintage store "cauz" to support. I just hope they sell costume pearl jewelry - reasonably priced!
