Chapter 25: Chapter 25: Shopping
"Here's fifty thousand." Outside the bank, Margaret handed a large brown paper bag to Josh as she got into the car.
Hearing the amount, Josh's hand trembled slightly as he almost dropped the bag.
He opened it to find five stacks of hundred-dollar bills.
"Why so much?" Josh asked, slightly confused. Didn't he say a thousand, or at most a few thousand, would be enough?
And Margaret, really, aren't you worried about getting robbed?
"Is it too much? Well, just spend what you need. Keep the extra. A man always needs money for something. It's never a bad thing to have some extra on hand," Margaret said with a kiss on his cheek, speaking warmly.
Just that one line nearly broke Josh's resolve.
What a wonderful woman. Compared to those who are constantly asking for cars or houses, Josh couldn't help but feel grateful to Tony Windis for causing so much trouble. If it weren't for Tony, a woman like Margaret would never have been available to him.
As a return gesture, Josh decided to make Tony Windis death a painful one to vent Margaret's frustrations.
He nodded, accepting the money without any refusal.
Margaret was pleased, thinking that Josh had fully accepted her, unlike before when he insisted on paying her.
"By the way, let's go buy some clothes. Your wardrobe needs an upgrade. Those clothes are no match for your handsome face. Oh, and we need to get you new shoes too." Margaret excitedly linked her arm with Josh's.
"Alright, I'll go with whatever you choose!" Josh nodded. He didn't care much about clothes, but he couldn't bring himself to refuse this sweet and charming lady.
"But I don't have any clothing vouchers left," Josh said.
Just like sugar and gasoline, even in America at that time, clothes and shoes had to be bought with specific clothing coupons.
Since 1942, every federal citizen received 24 clothing vouchers per year to purchase clothes and shoes.
It may sound like a lot, but one clothing voucher didn't get you very far.
For example, a coat required 18 vouchers, a full suit 26 vouchers, a pair of shoes 9 vouchers, slippers 5 vouchers, a slip (undergarment dress) 3 vouchers, pants 8 vouchers, a bra 3 vouchers, and so on.
In other words, 24 clothing vouchers weren't enough to buy a complete outfit from head to toe.
Shoes were even more strictly controlled and could only be bought twice a year per person. If you wanted more, you had to buy second-hand.
Some things, like stockings, were even harder to find.
Yes, stockings. A somewhat amusing fact for later generations is that during World War II, stockings were considered as crucial as sugar and gasoline.
Why? Because of parachutes.
Before the war, the primary material for American parachutes was not nylon, but silk, which came from Asia. But after the war with Japan, the silk supply was cut off, so parachutes were made from nylon.
This led to all nylon manufacturers, including Dupont, being forced by the federal government to stop making stockings and other nylon products, focusing solely on military supplies like parachutes.
From then on, civilian stockings became scarce and their prices skyrocketed, reaching up to $20 a pair during the war. At the peak of the war, the price even hit an astounding $4,000.
This was a price that even 21st-century celebrities wouldn't dare ask for.
Still, the demand for nylon remained high.
So the military launched a campaign to solicit donations from civilians, even advertising with photos of handsome soldiers to encourage women to give up their stockings.
It was absurd.
What was even more absurd, according to an FBI report, during the war, the most commonly stolen items from American homes weren't dollars, gold, or valuables, but alcohol, stockings, and shoes.
This was why Josh had been wearing an ill-fitting coat, as it was a piece left by his father.
Even when he stole or borrowed cars, and when he tracked and killed Joe Barbaro, most of the clothes he wore were old clothes, so he didn't mind burning them.
He had only recently bought a few new sets when he had some money to spare, using up all the clothing vouchers from the past two years.
Josh's gaze shifted to Margaret's smooth thigh, and he couldn't resist running his hand over it.
Margaret had been wearing stockings yesterday, but he had torn them off in the heat of the moment, and now he felt a twinge of regret.
"This place is crowded, don't make a scene. Don't worry about the vouchers, we won't need them," Margaret said, then leaned in close to Josh's ear and whispered, "But If you really can't wait, we can find a more private spot."
Her soft whisper sent a shiver down Josh's spine.
This woman really knew how to tempt him.
He shook his head, reminding himself that he was still growing and shouldn't overdo it.
So, he ignored Margaret's suggestion and drove the car toward the destination she had given.
When they arrived, Josh found that the place Margaret mentioned wasn't a regular shopping mall.
It was a high-end bespoke tailor shop, the kind Josh had only heard about in his previous life.
But during this time, bespoke shops weren't as pretentious as they would later become, and ready-made clothes were still available.
After some work from the tailor, Margaret helped Josh pick out three suits, and they also ordered three custom-made ones.
In the end, they didn't use vouchers but instead paid with thick stacks of cash.
Of course, Margaret's social connections as a Chicago socialite played a part in this.
So-called material shortages and limited supplies mostly applied to ordinary citizens with no power.
After buying the clothes, they went to a shoe store, where the same transaction took place.
They also visited a watch shop, where they spent thousands on a Breguet watch.
Although Breguet's fame had been overshadowed by brands like Patek Philippe and Vacheron Constantin in later years, during this period, Breguet was the unrivaled king of watches.
And now, Breguet not only made watches and aviation instruments but even built fighter jets.
After all the shopping and fitting, Josh looked completely refreshed, with a sharp new look that complemented his handsome face and tall figure. With the confidence of someone who had traveled from another time, his entire aura seemed elevated.
From a regular handsome guy, he had transformed into a modern-day aristocrat.
As the saying goes, "Clothes maketh thee man." The ancient wisdom was right.
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