ustxtxb_obs_2010_02_05_50_00021-00000_000.pdf

DATE LINE 0 NACOGDOCHES 44te PHOTO BY CASPER VILDRIK JUSTESEN Walmart, I Can’t Quit You by NCE UPON A TIME IN OUR LITTLE TOWN of Nacogdoches, arguably the oldest continuous settlement in Texas, there was no Walmart. There were numerous stores downtown and few outlander establishments where we bought our goods. Our first Walmart was little more than a glorified Kmart, just another place to shop. Then the old Walmart was replaced by a Walmart Superstore. As it went up, potential patrons like my wife and I drove by the ground where it was being built and stared out at the rising structure that was about to replace so many stores and businesses in our town. At that moment, we did not see it as good. FEBRUARY 5, 2010 But lo and behold, it was built, and we came, and we bought, and I was wrong. We needed a Walmart Superstore in our town. We just didn’t know it. It has become a focal point. A place where bored and thrifty shoppers can congregate and entertain themselves by seeing what’s new and who’s there with a kind of wonderful East Texas local yokelism reminiscent of a group trip to foreign tourist sites. Laying it on the line, Walmart is not considered a prestigious place to buy clothes, quality jewelry or Paris fashions. If you’re looking for sexy underwear, maybe Victoria’s Secret is a better place for you. There’s even a Web site that reveals shoppers at superstores in all their sometimes backwoods, broadass glory. The site’s secretive cameras focus on house shoe-shuffling women in muumuus all the colors of the rainbow \(if the rainbow faded a bit and had some strapped snugly into overalls, and waddling patrons of both sexes in straining stretch pants, usually brown Then there’s the rare bon vivant decked out in a cosmic, shimmering blue or green uniform that would THE TEXAS OBSERVER