Yesterday someone was wishing that there were shoes that were reasonably priced that were made in the United States. I decided to check out Americansworking.com. I was amazed. There are quite a few places that make shoes in the United States.

I knew the Red Wing Shoe Company makes many of their boots in Red Wing, Minnesota.  As a child I toured the plant with my parents as they owned a shoe store and bought their inventory from the Red Wing Shoe Company. Red Wing makes work boots and heritage boots.

My parents owned a shoe store for 30 years. Most of their inventory came from the United States. They owned their shoe store at a time when factories thrived in this country.

I took a little time to browse through the shoes listed on americansworking.com. I found the shoes that were made in America to be ones that I would buy. Their prices ranged from middle of the road $39.00 to more expensive. Perhaps there are $10.00 made in America shoes out there somewhere.  Not all companies are listed so a Google search might bring you some more answers.

Although this blog is not necessarily about made in the Usa. I will provide links from time to time as I am made aware of them to help us in our search to make a committment to America.

Recently a factory in my state decided to lay off employees. These are permanent layoffs. This company recently built a plant in Thailand and are outsourcing many of their jobs to that country. I felt sad and helpless. I know so many people who are out of work. Many of these people used to have good paying jobs in factories in our country, but these jobs no longer exist because of companies moving these jobs overseas.

I am not an economist but I am a consumer. I am a consumer that hasn’t given much thought to where the products that I buy are made. I believe in Fair Trade and have bought many Fair Trade products. But with another plant closing I started investigating the items in my home.

My Crockpot is made in China. My curling iron is made in China. My telephone is made in China. My stainless steel scissors are made in China. My bathrobes are made in China. My purses are made in China.  My Tickle Me Elmo from Mattel is made in China. My humidifier was made in the USA.

Without a doubt it is hard to find some of these products being made anymore in the United States. I also have not taken the time to look at labels and investigate the option of buying American Made.

Recently I read a blog and it is challenging all of us to be an aware consumer and buy products made in America. You can read this blog at http://buyamericanchallenge.wordpress.com.  I visited Amerianworking.com and found products that are made in America.

Let’s join together as Americans and make a commitment to our American workers. I have a lot of wacky dreams and maybe this is one of them. But I believe in the American people and I believe if we stick together and support our workers we can effect a change. Take the challenge. Challenge your friends and neighbors to do the same. And don’t give up. If it doesn’t work in a year, keep it going for two, three, four or however long it takes to be proud of Made in America. We’ll check back periodically to see how we are doing.

Aha! My Silk Soymilk is made in the United States!

John Travolta was in the news yesterday. He was in the news because he didn’t wear his toupee in Hawaii. I wanted to scream so what? Who cares? And yes, I read the article. In my defense I have to say I read the article because I couldn’t believe they were writing an article about a matter that should only be of concern to Mr. Travolta. Obviously he didn’t care so why should we?

I imagine it would be big news if Dr. Phil showed up in a brand new toupee. We would all flock to see and read the news story taking our attention off of things we  should be more concerned about such as the amount of homelessness growing on the streets of America. We should be more concerned about the number of troops dying every day. Those headlines seem to get pushed into the abyss so we don’t have to deal with them.

I always have a bad hair day. The only ones that have to deal with it are me and the people I work with everyday and they don’t care. They are more concerned about how I feel on the inside and not how I look on the outside.

So Mr. Travolta if you are reading this, how are you on the inside? Wait! Don’t answer that. There is a tiny, small, minute chance that it might make the news. However probably not. It is not as interesting as your hair.