Teach
03-04-2008, 04:35 PM
"Ma, ya shouldn’t have," I said. "We can’t afford it," I added. "Nothing’s too good for my son," she said.
My mother had just bought me two fancy broadcloth shirts. The kind wealthy businessmen wear.
She wanted me to be well dressed when I started high school.
"Ya didn’t pay full price did ya, Ma," I said. "No son, have you ever known your mother to pay full price for anything," she replied.
In retrospect, my mother was the consummate shopper. She had many fine qualities; yet one of the things she’d be best remembered for is – finding a bargain. Many’s the day she bring my brother and me to downtown Boston. We’d hit just about every department store: Jordan Marsh, Gilchrist’s, Raymonds and RH White. Yet her favorite was a place down in the cellar called Filene's Basement.
It’s at Filene's Basement that my mother was truly in her element. Bargains. Bargains. And more bargains. She always had her eyes peeled for both markdowns and what she called: "The Mismarked." These were items that she believed had been accidentally mismarked. They weren't easy to find. Yet, they were indeed ---the ultimate bargain.
Well, when she saw a "mismark," she’d swoop down upon it like a falcon that was zooming down on its prey. No one. I mean no one..outsnatched my mother, especially when it came to bargains.
In the years that have ensued, I’ve tried, in my own way, to carry on the tradition. No. Not in the department store (I find shopping an abomination). Rather. I look for "the mismarks" in the horse racing arena.
In a nutshell, I look for value plays. A race in which a horse is heavily favored, yet it shouldn’t be. Overbet. Undervalued.
In these cases, either the public has let themselves get overly enamored with a horse that they shouldn’t, or it’s a case where the horse is very good, but the jockey assigned to ride him is middle tier. In other words: vulnerable.
Oh, another thing I look for are "bridge-jumpers." It happened a couple weeks ago at Aqueduct with a Stewart Elliott horse. It led to telephone numbers in the show payoffs.
Yes, my mother lives on in me. Only in a manner she might not have actually approved, nor fully realized. Yes, Mom, I’m still shopping for bargains. But instead of Filene's and Jordan Marsh; it’s Aqueduct, Santa Anita and Gulfstream.
Oh, those shirts that my mother bought me when I started high school; they wore like iron. If I recall, I still had them when I graduated.
My mother had just bought me two fancy broadcloth shirts. The kind wealthy businessmen wear.
She wanted me to be well dressed when I started high school.
"Ya didn’t pay full price did ya, Ma," I said. "No son, have you ever known your mother to pay full price for anything," she replied.
In retrospect, my mother was the consummate shopper. She had many fine qualities; yet one of the things she’d be best remembered for is – finding a bargain. Many’s the day she bring my brother and me to downtown Boston. We’d hit just about every department store: Jordan Marsh, Gilchrist’s, Raymonds and RH White. Yet her favorite was a place down in the cellar called Filene's Basement.
It’s at Filene's Basement that my mother was truly in her element. Bargains. Bargains. And more bargains. She always had her eyes peeled for both markdowns and what she called: "The Mismarked." These were items that she believed had been accidentally mismarked. They weren't easy to find. Yet, they were indeed ---the ultimate bargain.
Well, when she saw a "mismark," she’d swoop down upon it like a falcon that was zooming down on its prey. No one. I mean no one..outsnatched my mother, especially when it came to bargains.
In the years that have ensued, I’ve tried, in my own way, to carry on the tradition. No. Not in the department store (I find shopping an abomination). Rather. I look for "the mismarks" in the horse racing arena.
In a nutshell, I look for value plays. A race in which a horse is heavily favored, yet it shouldn’t be. Overbet. Undervalued.
In these cases, either the public has let themselves get overly enamored with a horse that they shouldn’t, or it’s a case where the horse is very good, but the jockey assigned to ride him is middle tier. In other words: vulnerable.
Oh, another thing I look for are "bridge-jumpers." It happened a couple weeks ago at Aqueduct with a Stewart Elliott horse. It led to telephone numbers in the show payoffs.
Yes, my mother lives on in me. Only in a manner she might not have actually approved, nor fully realized. Yes, Mom, I’m still shopping for bargains. But instead of Filene's and Jordan Marsh; it’s Aqueduct, Santa Anita and Gulfstream.
Oh, those shirts that my mother bought me when I started high school; they wore like iron. If I recall, I still had them when I graduated.