SEARS AND ROEBUCK -- HA --- 60 YEARS LATER

This the story of a one man crusade against a giant in corporate America.  That one man is none other that yours truly.  As you can see, Sears Roebuck & Co. is not  young.  Neither am I.  Of course,  I was not born in 1897.  My divorce from Sears Roebuck and Co. took place when I was about 15.  Since then I haven't spent a penny in favor of that company, no matter what its name is.  Even if Old Man Roebuck is no longer in the name.   
When I was 12 years old, EFR Dion kept his promise to me and bought me a bicycle.  It was a beauty.   It cost a lot of money.  It was in the mid $50 range.

I was very proud of it.  It was not lost on me that it cost more than the other bicycles that my friends had.  It was better "decked out" too, what with the headlight, horns and knapsack carrier over the back wheel.  
That bike got used and abused a lot.  I had permission to ride on a set network of streets for a while.  When summer came, the range was extended because I would have to travel the the baseball fields where we played our games in the TT League that I talked about the other day.  So, naturally small repairs had to be made.  Inner tubes, tires, axle nuts, master links for broken chains and things of a bicycle nature.  It seemed that every time I went to Sears Roebuck & Co. for these small parts they would not have them, but would offer to order them for me.  I would then go to the generic bicycle shop for the parts.  They would not fit properly.  Even axle nuts were different.  So, slowly but surely my JC Higgins, Sears and Roebuck @ Co. vehicle was no longer what it had been three years before.  Finally, I needed a new chain, that's all there was to it because the gear ratios required it.  I went to the store and got the same story as usual.  I looked at the employee and told him, "I will never patronize this store again."  I left, found a way to save tobacco farm earnings and turned my JC Higgins into a generic two-wheeler.  
Today, something happened to make me think of this.  I needed something for the garden.  I went to the nearest Target but did not find what I needed.  I left and decided I would go to Home Depot, three miles away.  On the way, only one half mile from Target, righ there, where K-Mart used to be,  I saw a Sears store with a garden department.  Everything and more swirled around in my head for about three or four minutes as I continued on my way to Home Depot.  One of the things that was very clear was this: in about six or seven months it will be 60 years since I made that promise.  Today, on my way to Home Depot I renewed it for another 60.  Maybe by then, the women's underwear section will be a lot more brazen than what it was when I was still perusing the catalogue.  Maybe.