Ground Report

Traveling in the rain, I swiftly walked up the street to my local neighborhood Beauty Supply store out of desperation to change my boring dark brown hair color. Dripping wet, I jogged inside the store scaling the isles until I was able to locate the section for permanent hair color without the help of a clerk. After thirty minutes of comparing sample hair locks to the shade of my skin, I made my selection and headed to the register. While waiting for the cashier to service me, I decided to skim the candy section for something that might satisfy my taste buds. I could not believe what I saw hanging in the candy section right above the Eclipse chewing gum. A pregnancy test? I walked closer. A pregnancy test for… $1.99? You’re kidding. I turned to the cashier that began ringing up my items. I had to ask. "Yeah, I actually got the idea from a colleague of mine that own his own beauty supply store himself. He said that they were selling like crazy. So I decided to order a couple myself. And they are flying off the shelf over here. This is my second shipment" reported Jason Mills, cashier for Urban Boutique Beauty Supply, located on the South-side on 88th and Ashland. Jason went on to explain that he mentioned to his employer the possibility of "ordering condoms to resale as well as pregnancy tests", but his employer decided against it. It did not come to mind to ask the cashier, why the candy section of all places? Pregnancy has become all too common in the urban neighborhoods. Now you can locate a quick and easy test in the same section that you would find a Snicker’s bar. How convenient? What are we teaching our children? So what’s next? Walking up to a gum-ball machine and finding Clear Blue Easy? Wouldn’t it make more sense to supply protection, rather than to provide a quick ease from a pregnancy scare? That way, our urban community would not feel that having unprotected sex is no big deal. I would think so.