L. Calamity Jane (Penny Herrington), R. Deadwood Dick (Dan Driscoll) with Larry Cook and Dick Brown – 2005 Chinook Observer

The voice at the other end of the phone was not familiar, but the name was.  The call came yesterday afternoon from Billings, Montana and the subject was a suggestion for my blog!   Penny Herrington, who some of you remember as Calamity Jane in the Peninsula Players’ 2005 production of “Deadwood Dick,” was the caller. But it wasn’t theater she was calling about… Or maybe, in some sense it was.

She had a blog suggestion for me and had I heard of the ‘movement’ called #GrabYourWallet?  No, I hadn’t and so after our conversation I went to trusty old Google to find out more.  What I found was an amazing list of retailers and products supported in some way by the Trump family with the suggestion that consumers boycott them.

During the 1970s “Salad Bowl Strike”

Reading the information at the site took me right back to the 1970s when we boycotted lettuce in support of Caesar Chavez and the United Farmworkers,  I remember it as a time that we didn’t serve lettuce – not in sandwiches or salads or in any form whatsoever.  The Castro Valley branch of the Berkley Consumer’s Co-op where I did my grocery shopping offered no lettuce at all on their produce shelves.  Nor did any of the other Co-op branches or most other grocery stores.

Known as the ‘Salad Bowl Strike’ – now, that is; we just said “don’t buy lettuce” at the time – it was part of a series of strikes, mass pickets, boycotts and secondary boycotts that led to the largest farm worker strike in U.S. history. All of which led directly to the passage of the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act in 1975 and made César E. Chavez’s name a household word.

#GrabYourWallet Profile Picture

As I looked at the retailers and brands (so many! OMG!) that are in some way connected with the Trump family, I felt seriously overwhelmed.  On the other hand, it seems apparent to me that our President-Elect is all about money and that, perhaps, we could grab his attention by not giving him (even indirectly) any of the hard-earned money in our pocketbooks and bank accounts.  A pretty tall order, to be sure.  But it’s worth considering.  Just Google GrabYourWallet and see what you think…

One more thought – as might be expected, the President-Elect has already been busy tweeting his reactions to #GrabYourWallet.  On Thursday morning, he tweeted out a cryptic note of solidarity with L.L. Bean, the high-end, Maine-based retailer:  Thank you to Linda Bean of L.L.Bean for your great support and courage. People will support you even more now. Buy L.L.Bean.

Once upon a time I might have said “Hold onto your hats!” about this ride we’re about to embark on.  But maybe “#GrabYourWallet” is more appropriate in 2017.