My Christmas Shawl Sweater

By SHERMAN MILLER
My wife Annie and I had just moved back north to Sea Isle City after 12 years in Florida. She wanted to be back with family, so back we came in September of 1981. The job market for me was extremely slow and it wasn’t until early December that I got a job with a company in Newark. With Christmas approaching it was the best news I could have gotten.
Newark, at the time, was way off the chart as far as safety was concerned. One of our fellows had been attacked in the Newark subway. Another had been attacked just after cashing his paycheck A manager had been attacked right in the lobby of our building. These were the prevalent conditions at that time. As a result, it was highly recommended that anyone going out on an errand recruit a fellow employee to accompany him or her on the errand.
At Annie’s behest, I had to shop for a much needed shawl collar sweater, so I got a couple of the fellows to go the four blocks with me to Bamberger’s to shop their bargain basement. On the way, we passed what appeared to be a drunk passed out on the sidewalk, people just walking around him. Well, we got to Bamberger’s and since our time was of the essence, we hurried our searches. I discovered exactly what I was looking for, the shawl sweater, marked down from $60 to $20, picked out my size and headed toward checkout.
The long line at checkout precluded my ever getting out of there in less than two hours, so that was not an option. Even though sweater was pleading with me, “buy me, buy me,” we had to return to work. On the return trip, the apparent drunk was being loaded into a police ambulance. He was dead, a sad note for the holidays.
All afternoon, I kept hearing the plea, so I decided to go back after work to buy the sweater. I couldn’t recruit a convoy, so, I went alone. Four blocks at night in downtown Newark was tantamount to ‘going over the top.’ With extreme vigilance, I made the trip and there was the sweater, overjoyed to see me.
Since very few people were there at that time, we made it through the checkout in short order and were on our way to my car. And, there was the car, sitting in abject loneliness on the lot. I asked car to start quickly, which it did, and we were soon on our way home to the relief of all. When I got home, Annie loved her Christmas gift to me.
The sweater is still thanking me for buying it by keeping me warm and toasty for 31 years. And, who says there is no appreciation in the world?
Miller writes from Sea Isle City