Red Vests are Hot

After church this morning I went to our friendly Ace Hardware for some items for my shell crosses. Everyone who knows me knows how much I LOVE Ace Hardware. If only they had everything that Home Depot does. Aside from that, it is hands-down one of the best shopping experiences EVER. I go into the store — a friendly brick establishment, its front porch loaded with seasonal items — am greeted by name by the cashiers, and approached with a smile by a man in a red vest who takes me to every item I need, helps me pick it out and gives me advice on how to use it. No walking around trying to find someone. And at the big chains you can never get ONE person to help you in every department. There's lots of pointing me in a general direction. Or that favorite of mine, when I ask if they have something, only to be told "if you couldn't find it in [department name], then I guess we don't have it."

I love Ace Hardware so much that when Harleigh wanted to get an afterschool job, that's where she wound up working. That job ended once she started a new school where she got out later, but those red vests still give me an "employee" discount every time I come in and always ask about how she's doing. It's like a family.

My love for Ace began about 5 years ago when after shopping there I realized that I had locked my keys in the car. I could see them lying on the floor of the back seat. I went back into the store, near tears, and told one of the guys what I had done. He came out with me and after surveying the situation, as any man in a red vest would do, told me that he could see enough of the car key that he thought he could draw it and go into the store and cut it for me. I'll be darned if I didn't drive out of that parking lot in my own car with a brand new key. Of course I wanted to write a letter to corporate headquarters and tell this marvelous, heroic tale to the CEO of Ace, but was told by my knight-in-shining-armor that this talent of duplicating keys using the sight-to-paper method might not be too well looked upon by management. So, it was a freshly baked batch of brownies to the crew that afternoon that had to do.

As a single mom for many, many years, I have come to take great comfort in those red vests. Without a man at home to be advisor and doer on many a home project, I turn to these guys for help. And they've never let me down. Here is today's project that I started. A phone table I purchased at Lakewood two summers ago. It seemed a perfect side table for one of my living room chairs but was too high. I went to Ace Hardware and asked for a saw to cut the legs shorter. After much debate about the type of wood, how thick the legs were and what kind of strength I had to saw-off four legs, the man in the red vest did what any chivalrous male should do: he told me to go home, get the table, and bring it in for one of them to tackle. That afternoon I had a table the perfect height. Here is it outside; I'm painting it. Will share my new table soon.