It was the day before Father's Day and Elsbeth decided to buy me a new short sleeve pullover sweater as a gift. She says she is tired of looking at the ratty ones I have because they have a thousand little nubby wart size lumps she has to shave off. Now the wool is so thin you can see through It.

So we went to Marshalls and they didn't have any. Sadly we don't have Penney's in the Junction like in olden days so she insisted we try Target. That was fruitless so we went down to Macy's at Southcenter. By this time I was running low on gas and the car had used up about two gallons.

Macy's was a waste of time,and so was Nordstrom.

I finally gave up.

But she didn't.

Sweater schmetter. She just abandoned the whole idea but not the urge to do what women do best. Browse. I was sandbagged.

I did learn a few things. Stores have very few places to sit down. The few spots to rest your bones in the Southcenter Mall are all filled with teenagers all talking on cell phones.

The photos tell the story of the hunt for my sweater.

Jerry is still wearing the thin sweaters, but Elsbeth is still smiling. Jerry can be reached at publisher@robinsonnews.com