this season, give the gift of mao

Delicious mao goodies

The Walker Home is a cute little shop in Fredericksburg, Virginia that mainly serves as a quirky home furnishing store.  They have other random, odd, pop-arty and Japanese/Chinese goodies as well, and they have a lot of Chinese antique furniture from the 18th and 19th century (including a REALLY neat, museum-quality wedding bed).

Anyhoo, while wandering around downtown Fredericksburg, my friend Nina and I were walking by this shop when I notice a very intriguing item in the window: a Mao Zedong messenger bag

Mao backpack

I am intrigued when people plaster the image of famous dictators on random items, so I figured it would be fun to peruse the store, as they usually have interesting things anyway.  Little behold the wonders that lay in store.

A very kind man led us into the back, where apparently they were having a Christmas sale of Mao-related items - knapsacks, bags, statues, caps, etc.  If someone gets me the above bag for Christmas, I will love you forever.

Nina and I tried on the warm-looking winter hats:

I am mao

I look quite cheerful, for a communist.  Nina, however, in the same hat looks more Russian communist than Chinese communist:

Nina as mao

And we learned that if you're looking for a special gift for that special someone, look no further....

The gift of mao