On the matter of Wal-Mart, another country has been heard from.

OK, OK, the e-mails posted to the opinion@thesunchronicle.com mailbox that protest the discount giant's decision to abolish its fabric departments did originate in America.

It just doesn't seem like it's the same America from which protests were coming some years back warning Wal-Mart would be the death of Main Street retail businesses.

The two Fabricgate letters received so far were not published because they were reproductions of an online petition and letters to the editor should be original and in the signer's own words. One of the points they make is that, for many, Wal-Mart has been the only affordable source of fabric within reasonable driving range.

That's true some places, I'm sure. I've shopped at Wal-Marts in rural Kentucky and West Virginia and had cause to praise them as retail oases. The mothers and fathers of today's clientele had little more than the Sears catalogue as an alternative to hours-long shopping trips or paying a high markup with small choices at a local shop. The same is apparently true in Idaho, where the Fabricgate petition drive has yielded a decision to reopen the fabric departments in three Wal-Marts.

But a lot of sewing is done at my house; wife Chris and daughter Accacia don't seem to have to travel too far for supplies. The touchdown dances banned by the NFL showed no more enthusiasm than theirs when they come home with bargains, though I don't think they find them as often as they would like.

In any event, the North Attleboro Wal-Mart manager who took my call the other day said some customers have complained about the closing of the fabric department, but there are no plans to reopen it. It's part of a bigger changeover at the store, she said, where several other new lines of merchandise are coming in.

"We thought we'd be doing a favor to..." she said, naming a nearby fabric shop that was expected to benefit from the change. "But I guess some of our customers don't see it that way."

Local competition was the problem being yelled about years ago. Now, the target is the denial of a desired good at a discount price. The many Americas are silent populations, until their ox is gored.

How far to Charlestown



I never had reason to suspect Boston's Charlestown neighborhood and Attleboro had much in common ... until former Charlestownian (Charlestowner? Charlestownite?) Kevin Carroll came across one of my columns mentioning the Kennedy's Butter & Egg Store that once sat just west of the railroad arch over Park Street. Following are excerpts from a subsequent e-mail from Carroll with my annotations:

We had frappes and real vanilla Cokes made by Annie at Donovan and Fallon's Rexall Drug Store.

We had frappes and real vanilla Cokes made by Edie at Ashley's and later at Cooper's - plus lime rickeys, with or without raspberry. A cabinet was where the good china and Waterford crystal was kept for company and after-funeral lunches.

Edie would answer to frappe or cabinet, depending what kind of mood she was in. The Snack Shack (the Swede's) up in Plainville felt the need to post the recipes - milk, ice cream, flavored syrup - for frappe, cabinet and "velvet" on the wall; too many out-of-state visitors had been disappointed when they asked for a milkshake and got only shaken milk and syrup.

Hot summer day, a Warwick Club tonic at the corner spa.

Hot summer day, a Simpson's Spring soda at the corner spa.

Lunch was a spuckie (sub sandwich on a spucadella roll.)

Lunch was a Charlieburger (cheeseburger with bacon, lettuce, tomato and pickles on a special roll) or a blade meat sandwich (marinated pork chunks on a Portuguese roll).

Every Friday was fish and chips from a greasy old takeout window on Bunker Hill Street with a line 30 people deep, which is now in trendy Charlestown.

In the mid-50s you'd go to Freddie's Nibble Nook on Park Street to take out fish and chips, wrapped in newspaper.

I bet if you're a beer drinker you might still have a loyalty to Narragansett.

Fond memories, if not loyalty. Surprised it wasn't Carling's in Boston.

But then again, Carroll's first sip was taken right after the Sox beat the Twins to end the "Impossible Dream" season. I sense some Curt Gowdy "Hi neighbor, have a 'Gansett!" influence afoot.

MARK FLANAGAN (mflanagan@thesunchronicle.com) is opinion page editor of The Sun Chronicle. Kevin Carroll's "Skybar Memories" of growing up in Charlestown can be found online at charlestownbridge.com/archive/news_db/20070906/20070906.html