Window shopping

On one of the roads I take on my journey home every day is a little strip mall. Just a small collection of shop fronts facing a busy main road. They have probably occupied this position for the past thirty or forty years. They are badly located in the sense that this small group of shops is about 500m from the nearest set of traffic lights. The cars on the road usually whiz by with the drivers (such as myself) otherwise occupied avoiding the other cars.

On rare occasion the traffic will build to the point where it is stopped or going very slowly past this group of shops. This is the only time I notice these shops. One shop, in particular, intrigues me. It is a Ladies ‘fashion boutique’.

Imagine, if you will, a strip of shops of old, false front with a canter levered flat awning. Each shop has a large glass display window. The name of the shop and a frilly boarder are painted onto the large glass pane. In the dress shops window stands a mannequin exhibiting what I assume to be the most desirable frock in the store. Now I am no connoisseur of ladies fashion but the mannequin and the dress seem somewhat dated. In fact, I am not sure if it is not the same dress I see on these well separated occasions.

Now I am a bit of a fan of science fiction and also a tad pre-occupied with what time is (This Blog would stand as good evidence of that fact). It should then come as no surprise that my immediate thought as I pass slowly past this shop is of the H G Wells’ time machine story. Specifically the part where the heroes view of the world, as he shoots forward in time, is a dress shop window. I am afraid to say that the hero would be rather bored by this window. No changing with the season and year for this one.

An other thought I had would be to take a picture every few months for a decade or so and compile it as an animation. Just like the time machine movie, but real. I guess this would be a tad dull given the apparent static nature of the display. Maybe the photographic record would prove me wrong.

I might be being a bit cruel. Maybe the shop is targeting more formal ladies wear, those timeless garments that are worn on high occasions (like a private girls school formal or to the opera). Yes I know such garments are subject to the whims of fashion but the subtlety of change is beyond my ability to discern. A frilly satin dress is a frilly satin dress. Maybe they make money handover fist selling to older clientele. Who knows?

I first noticed the shop at least six years ago, so what ever the formula, it is enough to keep the shop open; or may be something else. What if the owner actually died six years ago but had set up some automatic payment for the various bills? Perhaps there is a mummified shop keeper sitting at the counter. The sort of situation where the other shop keepers ‘noticed a bad smell a few years ago but thought it was the plumbing playing up’.


I wonder if they sell blue rinse as well?