Midnight at Walmart

When costuming a period show, lingerie is frequently an issue. Especially stockings.

You should have seen the spam I got, trying to find a place online to purchase seamed stockings. Boy, was I naive!

Yesterday morning, my son informed me that he needed a long-sleeved black shirt for a theater project, today. Of course. And when I mentioned that I had to go to Walmart after rehearsal (the only place open all night that has any possibility of a long-sleeved black shirt), one of the actresses asked me if I would pick her up a pair of stockings. I said yes.

It's sort of off season for long sleeved shirts at Walmart, so all I could find was this bicycle shirt--slinky spandex. And, while hunting for stockings, I also found a garter belt and stockings to go with that, as well as the "thigh highs" that the actress had requested. I have more faith in a garter belt than the thigh highs that are supposed to stay up by themselves. And, on the way to the register, I bought baby wipes for make-up removal, and a two-pound bag of red licorice sticks.

Standing in line (yes, there's a line. Thirty-five registers they got, and only one open), I got to chatting (like you do) with the lady behind me, and said, "Don't you just hate these emergency trips in the middle of the night?"

Then she and I and the cashier looked long and hard at what I was there getting, on my emergency trip to the store at midnight.

I decided I had best shut up. And I did.