When I was a kid, we used to go to North Carolina every summer to visit my grandparents. I always loved NC, it seemed like a completely different world from the suburbs of Detroit. We would drive through the hills, which was a big change in itself. Instead of the perfect right angles, identical houses and neatly maintained laws, people in the hills of NC lived in houses with no yards and no neighbors. Kudzu was common there. On the news you could hear about a family that went away for two weeks only to come home and find thick vines covering their house and car.

One of my favorite components of the yearly trip was a visit to World of Clothing (I really can't believe that they have a website).� World of Clothing is a giant warehouse that sells clothing.� The clothing is displayed in mounds on top of big square tables.� All of the merchandise is irregular in some way, sometimes we would find things with two left sleeves, or no button holes.� While this probably sounds really depressing, it was kind of fun to root through the pile to look for a treasure.� Of course, treasure, in those days, was defined as a pink polo shirt or a pair of pinstriped jeans.

I'm sure the WoC was the basis for my lifelong love of T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, etc.� I hadn't thought about it in so long, then during a very boring software quality lecture last night the memory came to me ad it made me happy.

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