Out-of-County Experiences

Taking advantage of Maryland's tax-free week, my kids and I went shoe shopping yesterday. Although Olney boasts multiple grocery stores, banks, fast food restaurants, salons and yoga studios, a person needs to leave town in order to find shoes. So up to Columbia Mall in Howard County we trekked.

After perusing small shoe stores in the mall, we finally found what the kids needed at Nordstrom. After ringing up our sale, the clerk was about to put the new shoebox in a paper shopping bag when I quickly offered her my reusable shopping bag. The clerk smiled knowingly and asked, "Are you from Montgomery County?" I guess our county's bag tax and my desire to be environmentally friendly have conditioned me to bring cloth bags (almost) everywhere.

Shoe mission accomplished, we contemplated stopping at JCPenney when we heard loud (even louder than me, my kids claim) exclamations of two thirty-something women gawking over a clothing purchase from ...  JCPenney: "This fabulous find was marked down and I had a great surprise at the register!" "Oh -- let me see!" Squeals of delight echoed through the mall as one woman pulled out a red striped shirt out of a plastic bag (remember, no bag tax here).

My kids and I whirled around to see what all the excitement was about. "Are they commercial people?!" my 10-year-old exclaimed. I expected to find myself either on Candid Camera or on the set of advertising shoot. Commercial or not, we then decided not to go to JCPenney, but to return home to Olney. Enough out-of-county experiences for one day.