It's a good day to shop.

Mom and I are going shopping today. I don't like to window shop any longer. I prefer to go to a store, find what I need, and leave. Window shopping, or "looking around," eats into my knitting time. When the clock is ticking, one must prioritize how one spends free time. Mom and I will go to a nearby mall here in town. It should be quiet. A football game will take place this afternoon. Since I don't have to coach the game—ha ha—our schedule is open.

I remember how much fun I had when my Mom took Little Me shopping. Her day off from work was Thursday, and sometimes she would pick me up from school. From there, we would head to the old Marshall Field's on Lake Street in Oak Park, Illinois. On our way out of Field's, we usually stopped at the store bakery, where we would purchases some Napoleons and Eclairs. The Field's clerk packed the pastries into a white, cardboard box, and she tied them with a gold string. Even today, I use the Field's Napoleon as the standard against which I measure all other Napoleons.

If Mom had more time, or if she felt like treating me to a special outing, then we would go to the Marshall Field's in the newly built Oakbrook Center. Oakbrook! It was a beautiful outdoor mall with elegant stores like Field's, I. Magnin, Bramson's, and Saks Fifth Avenue. We usually went to the "bargain level" at Field's. We often ate a hot dog at the Field's café before we headed home, down Roosevelt Road.

Oakbrook weaves through many memories for me, and I'll return to talking about it again.

Oakbrook had such special meaning to me that Mr. Irene and I headed there to take a nice, spring walk on the day after we got married. We shopped at Rizzoli, where I bought Allen Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind and Judith Balaban Quine's The Bridesmaids.

I enjoyed window shopping during early trips to the Oak Park and Oakbrook stores. With Field's gone, and no Oak Park or Oakbrook nearby, I'd rather pick up what's on my list and leave.

Suburban Chicago, December 1961. My Mom shows my paternal Grandmother, Tatjana, her purchases after a shopping trip. The women stand at our kitchen table.