Oakdale, You Look Stunning This Evening

For the most part, this place is deficient in stores that relay concerted supplies of clothes or 'modern' apparel. There is such thing here as a Kmart, a beast of a dying breed apparently, and we've so far successfully repelled the vigilant and penetrating gaze of the eye of Walmart. But we have our ubiquitous Walgreens and CVSs, like everywhere else.

The only store more common here than drug stores are dollar stores. We lack several other kinds of arguably necessary establishments, but there is always room for another, nearly identical, establishment that vends questionable items at questionable prices. The sad side to this story is that many of us need these prices, and this town just doesn't provide opportunities for alternatives, and perhaps doesn't want to admit to it, for its own separation into a wealthy (East Oakdale) and less well-supported (West Oakdale).

Stereotypically, there isn't any dearth of, for lack of a better name, "Western Wear." Whole stores are dedicated to its sale and to perpetuating the spectacle of the lone cowboy, not to mention flea markets and even general apparel venders. Owning cowboy boots and some kind of hat is nearly obligatory, even if these purchases are often very costly and should really only be incurred for specific and utility-oriented ends. Then again, this same aesthetically-indulgent trend displays itself in the incessant presence of climate-change-defying (denying) lifted/unlifted trucks that roam this land.

Such is fashion and fare in this place without a place.