Yesterday, the 4th of July, was my wife's birthday. She says she was about 9 before she figured out that all the parties and fireworks weren't just for her, but doing the red-white& blue on the 4th has always been her favorite. We live close to Yorktown, less than 10 minutes on a normal day, so we took our newly 2-year-old daughter to for the festivities. After the several minor mishaps that always happen when travelling with children, a democrat-hating store finally pushed us over the edge and we went home to drink our own Pabst Blue Ribbons.
This story doesn't lead to a dramatic event with fisticuffs, cops, and blood, just a wearing down and dissappointment about things that didn't have to be.
Forgetting the cooler with the juice and milk, event detours, traffic and parking, all delayed us enough to miss the parade, but we're normally adaptable. However, the missed nap and the heat and the fidgety toddler who doesn't want to share her newly discovered concept of 'birthday' with others was starting to wear on my wife and her hopes for her own birthday. I certainly could have done a better job of making the day perfect, but that is always true.
We did out bit for the economy, buying some mounted prints and (secret, for later) red-white-and-blue glass earrings. After the too-heavy menu at the first available seating in the restaurant, where we all played with the made-in-china plastic flags from the table centerpiece, the thing that really broke the plan for us was the store
next door. We wanted to buy a flag for Kid, and the "Stars and Stripes Forever" store was right there. We wandered around in the cool AC and one of the helpful ladies in the store picked out a nice little flag for Kid.
Wife said: "they hate democrats here. Look at those baskets."
Surrounding the cash register were baskets of buttons with fun slogans like "Hill no you'll never be president" "Support President Bush and the Troops" "Democrats for Dummies" "Newt 2008", " and so on. You couldn't line up or reach the cash register without leaning over and reading those buttons.
We were not going to pay our money for some cheap flag to someone who based their "Stars and Stripes Forever" ( http://www.virginia.org/... ) business plan on wrapping the flag around President 30% approval. We left. We left the store, wandered around the craft booths a little while longer in the heat, and trudged back up the hills to the car to go home.
The PBRs in the fridge, the Kid's wading pool, and a red, white &blue cake still wanted us.
Update [2007-7-5 16:32:7 by anonymous coward 8]: I found another link to them: here, and it says they carry "Democatic"(sic) merchandise. I looked for DemocRatic buttons, thinking they couldn't possibly be that partisan, but I didn't see any. Maybe they keep them in the back.