While Lloyd was getting ready for his concert, I had a couple of hours to kill in Beatrice. It’s a little town – about twice the size of Seward, I’d say. They had a Wal-Mart, a couple of farm stores, a strange little mall with a few stores, and a Pamida.
I know. Pamida!
If you’re at all familiar with Nebraska, Pamida predates Wal-Mart, kind of on par with a K-Mart, only really, really little. The owner of the tiny chain named it after his sons: Paul, Michael and David. (Much like the Beatles were going to be Jopagero.) We used to have one here in Seward, and it was fantastic to go visit in college.
I was almost hyperventilating approaching the Beatrice store… until I walked in the doors. I saw the first sales placard and immediately remembered that right before our Seward store tanked, Pamida had been bought out by ShopKo. Now they are like ShopKo’s seedy little brother – cheap and smarmy. It was not the best experience.
I did, however, make a great score. They had this cheap-o speaker for the iPod shuffle on clearance for 10 bucks, and when I checked out – it was only 7! Woo-hoo! It will probably break in a month, but I’ll use it to death until then. (I like that it has an internal battery that you charge by hooking it up to the computer.) How good do they sound? Exactly 7 dollars good.
There, aren’t you glad you read this?