Day 6 - A Trip to Walmart

I hate Walmart. Okay, I just had to put that out there. There are so many reasons why I hate Walmart that it could take up the entire blog. However, this is not about Walmart, it's about wearing the hijab to Walmart in Akron, Ohio in the middle of the day.

I went to Walmart to buy a few things that I was hoping to find, and as usual, they have half-stocked shelves, patched together, previously opened packages and in general, a feeling of 'whatever." Ah yes, this is not about Walmart, though, is it? It's about wearing the hijab in Walmart.

So, the good news is that I found some of the people in this particular Walmart dressed more unusually than I was. In fact, wearing a white and black hijab seemed almost normal by comparison. My presence barely raised an eyebrow when standing next to a woman who had unusually large, penciled in, plucked and tweezed eyebrows. My hijab was a non-issue when compared next to the woman who was wearing what looked to me to be a fairy costume. Although I was cranky about the whole Walmart experience, the good thing about it was the economic diversity and the "anything goes," appeal of such a place. The fact that we were all there, dressed in our various garb of self-expression, looking for the cheapest price (and yes, I was looking for inexpensive curtains or blinds), was the great common leveler.

I thought surely in Walmart I would get at least some surprised looks, or maybe even a comment or two, but people were polite, the women made eye contact and smiled, the men mostly ignored me (which is the point of wearing the hijab) so I just blithely sailed through Walmart, listening for the tell tale "beep beep beep" of my mother's scooter cart, which meant she was backing up, which could mean trouble.

I did take some delight, however, when mom narrowly missed a large stack of Charmain, or whatever paper product it was, which would have caused a terrific(albeit cushy) crash had she actually hit it. I fantasized about hopping on the scooter in my hijab and running into all the carefully constructed aisle displays of Cheese puffs or Brawny towels or diapers as some sort of rebellion against consumerism, but, that would have done a disservice to the hijab and, to mother, of course. She needed her scooter, and I needed to get out of there as fast as possible.

Tomorrow is the last full day of wearing the hijab. I'm actually looking forward to styling my hair again. I never thought I'd say that! I am going to try to get out of Cuyahoga County a little bit to see what it feels like out there in more rural America.

Wish me luck!
Blessings, Kathleen