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A co-worker recently told the story of a school field trip that was almost canceled. The trip was to Nashville to visit some sites of educational interest. However, something went wrong and the students were not able to go to the sites that they were supposed to visit.
A
decision was made not to cancel the trip but to have a change of venue;
the destination was now Opry Mills shopping mall. At first I wondered what
kind of educational value could Opry Mills have for a bunch of fourth
grade students? How would the parents react when they found that they
children had not learned anything about Andrew Jackson but had spent the
day shopping and roaming the mall
Many
things seem like a waste until they are put in perspective. A shopping
mall could be the best place to take an educational field trip if it were
done correctly. I remember a recent trip to the mall with my wife. We were
in a well-known department store named for what you would call a citizen
of a well-known French city.
While
she looked at things she was interested in, I browsed through the men’s
stuff. I found a shirt that was appealing and looked at the price only to
be shocked that even on a twenty percent off sale it would cost me about
sixty bucks. I eased it back into the rack but then became curious about
where it was made. Surely a shirt that expensive would be made in the USA!
I was wrong again. I had heard of a country called Bangladesh but I would
be hard pressed to even tell you what continent that it was on.
I
have been with my wife on several shopping excursions since then and often
amuse myself by looking at the labels in clothing to see where they came
from. I am familiar with many of the countries, like China and Mexico.
Other countries I am only familiar with because of wars that were fought
there, Vietnam and Korea for example. Other countries, I have no idea
where to find them. They have names that sound like an island that would
be in some tropical paradise or some "third world" country that
would just now be beginning to industrialize.
I
have actually looked at the labels of a dozen or more garments before I
can find even one that is made in the USA. It almost gives me the feeling
that Americans should not begrudge the billions given to these countries
in foreign aid; because if not for them, we would all be naked, and not by
choice. The reality and sad truth is that there are hundreds, if not
thousands, of buildings across America that used to be sewing factories
that are now empty and have padlocks rusting on their doors.
The
department stores could enhance the "shopping mall field trip
experience" in a number of ways by making a game of it. They could
steal a page from the Easter Bunny by offering prizes to the student who
was first to find something made in America. They could also take out just
one of the racks of import clothing and insert in its place a huge,
detailed world globe. It should be worth some extra classroom credit for a
student who could locate five to ten of the countries from the clothing
labels. Of course, you would have to exclude some of the obvious ones that
even I know like China and Mexico. Canada you probably wouldn’t have to
worry about. It’s funny that the countries with the colder climates are
not huge exporters of clothing. Maybe they need to keep all that they can
make just to keep themselves warm.
Looking
at clothing labels in the mall might be an interesting thing to do. I’m
willing to bet that it never catches on like some of the popular game
shows on TV, with Vanna White walking across the stage and flipping
letters over and selling you vowels. But, like the popular shows that have
a home version that you can play at home, the clothing label game has a
home version as well. All you have to do is go to your closet and go
through your clothes rack. You may be shocked at what you find.
Darrell Thompson is the manager of Lawrence County Exchange in Moulton.
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