I am getting paid back, big time. For being a bit smug about my healthy constitution. Although I almost never get sick, I sometimes forget that there’s more luck than science to it.
On Thanksgiving weekend we had numerous houseguests; all but one, my sister, were either incubating or had full flu symptoms. Even so, I was sure I wouldn’t come down with the coughing, sore throat, fever, sinus headache and all the rest.
Well, it just took a little longer. I felt fine until Friday, when I had to take care of the grandkids. Father was sick in bed and Mother was at work. The house was a germ-laden mess. That night I felt a little something in my throat and reached for the Vitamin C and ferrum phos. Too late. Saturday and Sunday receded into a blur of delirium.
Forget Christmas shopping.
I started leafing through my favorite catalogs, sure I would find just the right gifts for everyone. UPS delivers to their door, and I can forget the wrapping. Earlier on I had dog-eared some pages in Lands’ End, Eddie Bauer, L.L.Bean and National Geographic. Going through my picks, I was astonished to find every single one was imported. So I took a count. Eddie Bauer listed 160 items as imported and a mere 10 as made in the USA. Relaxed fit jeans are made here probably because we are perceived to be grossly overweight. Sorel, Columbia and Weather Edge snow boots didn’t specify country of origin. Nor did a Hummer multitool, an exotic kind of pocketknife. The domestic goods were limited to fleece hats, gloves, scarves, microfiber tights, blankets, a duck down comforter and body pillow covers. Also a gift box of natural vegetable based soaps, which sounds kind of nice, if I weren’t mad at these guys. Disgusted, I scanned Lands’ End. Of 270 items, only 17 were made here. My favorite Drifter cotton crew sweaters now come from afar. Ugh. This isn’t fair. No wonder we’ve lost a bazillion manufacturing jobs in this country. What they sell that’s made here is some Polartec parkas and blankets, one cabled lambs wool crew and one ribbed cotton sweater, some canvas totes, a wool scarf, and a Lighthouse ornament at $29.
I swiped the L.L.Bean catalog from my daughter’s room. She’d already marked pages for gifts, so I probably shouldn’t have looked. Bean’s Kingfield sweaters and turtlenecks, both imported. Bean’s crewnecks and turtlenecks all imported, Bean’s trail model fleece jacket and vest, imported. Even Bean’s Original Field Coat “designed to withstand the briars and branches of thick Maine woods,” sounds like Maine to me.
Wrong. I called to see if someone could tell me what percentage of goods came from Maine and what percentage is imported. Jane said she was very sorry but she couldn’t say, “Right off the top of my head. We have thousands of items.”
Oookay.
Sundance, at Salt Lake City, is more straightforward about what comes from where. Though it has many imported items, much of the jewelry is marked, “Handmade in the USA of imported stones.” I could live with that. At Title Nine Sports, which sells clothes for women, hence the name, at their stores in Berkeley, Boulder, Denver and Palo Alto, Ilana took my call and was friendly and helpful (she’s definitely not located in India). When I told her what I wanted, she went back to discuss my question “with the people in merchandising.” Imagine that, located in the same building. She said 40 percent of what they sell is domestic including Overland bags made in California, the Patagonia and Smart Wool labels. A few are part imported and part domestic. Sierra designs are mostly imported. Ilana said she works for the park service in summer and comes back to Title Nine’s Emeryville, California headquarters to work through the winter. I think this is about as good as it’s going to get, since I’m not feeling well enough to go to Patagonia.
I get my catalog out and begin to mark my choices. Oops. It doesn’t say imported by any of them. Oh well, I’m going to make my list, then get back on the phone with Ilana to find out if I can buy these things. I know the little bit of money I spend on Christmas gifts isn’t likely to make a dent in the profits of these importing companies. But it’s my cause of the year. There’s more than one downside to globalization.