ON THE CUTTING EDGE…

Of yesterday!

As a youngster I used to marvel at Willard Mullin’s sports drawings, and wanted to be a sports cartoonist myself at one point.

Recently I was reading an article in the Sports pages and mention of a book was made: Willard Mullin’s Golden Age of Baseball Drawings 1934-1972. So naturally I looked it up on the Internet and wanted to order it. Looking at the price I decided it was too expensive with the shipping and handling and planned on going to the Barnes & Noble store in my local mall to purchase it.

Now going to the store to buy something these days seems like an inconvenience, even if the price is cheaper. $7.00 shipping I think is excessive and it becomes a thing of principle for me. So off to the giant 2-storied building I go which is separate from the mall and as I enter I am overcome with the bigness of it all! I start to look and find a section called ‘Baseball’ which seems the logical choice to go to. Of course I can’t find it and roam some to look elsewhere, without luck.

Giving up I find this young lady who looks it up for me and goes to where I was standing, in the ‘Baseball’ section and without hesitation, picks it out. Mom would have said: “If it were a snake it would have bit you!” I am happy, until I see the price marked on the book. On the Internet it is $26.18 and the store book is marked $35.00! I speak up and state that it is cheaper on the Internet even with the shipping! She agrees and orders it for me on the Internet for a total of $28.44! Here I decided to go back to basics, do it the old fashioned way, the right way! Ha! Or maybe Huh?

Leaving I realize they want me to order on the Internet so they can close all these stores and operate at a larger profit, and that the cost of the bricks and mortar are driving the prices up!

My problem with the Internet ordering is I just don’t trust it. With the high incidences of identity thief, sending my personal data into the Cyber-sphere makes me a little uneasy, not unlike asking a stranger to hold my wallet for me while I will be right back! Somehow it makes me nervous.

I always feel guilty when I buy myself anything, It goes back to being a young father with little kids and the fact that they needed before I did. I never outgrew that, and even now I told TLW (The Little Woman) I was buying the book!

But the book will rekindle old dreams and unrealized ambitions, but will also stir up those wonderful memories of the expressive and artistic work of the great Willard Mullins!