Gladys Hampton stood by the Macy\u2019s entrance at the Del Amo Fashion Center staring at the rain, the puddles and the line of drivers in search of a parking space.<\/p>\n
Somewhere out there was her car, and she would have to speed-walk to avoid getting too wet.<\/p>\n
But unlike some shoppers at the mall in Torrance, Hampton didn\u2019t mind any of this one bit.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy opinion would be different if I had children,\u201d she said. \u201cYou have to pack \u2019em up, wrap \u2019em up.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said shopping on a rainy day had its pros and cons.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the plus side, the mall is not that busy,\u201d she said. \u201cIt feels Christmas-y \u2014 the weather.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hampton could not think of a con, just another positive side to the rain.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt may be subjective to me because I like the gloomy weather.\u201d<\/p>\n
Inside the mall, the Christmas music was playing, sneakers were squeaking, and families were waiting to take photos with Santa Claus.<\/p>\n
Sitting down on a bench, 59-year-old Trini Johnson took a break from shopping with her 14-year-old niece.<\/p>\n
Johnson was recovering from a knee injury and would have preferred to stay home in bed sleeping before her work shift , but her niece needed to do some last-minute shopping.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverywhere we go, I\u2019m looking for a chair,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She said getting out of the car in the rain was \u201chorrible\u201d and \u201cawful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Johnson said she was not a fan of cold, wet, gloomy weather.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hate wearing jackets,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Johnson and her niece were coming from Mid-City and took side streets because she refuses to drive on the freeway. She said the last time she drove in the rain, she was in the fast lane when a car on the opposite side of the freeway splashed water on her windshield, temporarily blocking her view.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t know whether to press on the brakes or not,\u201d she said. \u201cIt scared the hell out of me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Outside of such frightening moments, the year has been a tough one for Johnson. It will be the first holiday without her husband, who died earlier this year.<\/p>\n
She said they were separated but were still married and extremely close.<\/p>\n
She said it had been an adjustment.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have to call a regular plumber and people to help me around the house,\u201d she said, \u201cwhereas I used to call him and it would get fixed.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said the gloomy weather wasn\u2019t helping. Still, she said, everything would be OK.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll see him again and my parents, one day,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere in the mall, Ana Leon, 37, and her mother, Socorro Diaz, 63, had just wandered inside the mall and headed to a coffee shop.<\/p>\n
\u201cUn cafecito primero,\u201d Leon said. \u201cA coffee first.\u201d<\/p>\n
As she sipped on a coffee, Leon said her shoes and socks were wet.<\/p>\n
The mother and daughter hadn\u2019t traveled far. They live in Lawndale and hadn\u2019t planned on shopping, not on a rainy day.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people drive too fast or too slow,\u201d Leon said. \u201cAnd then there\u2019s the large puddles.\u201d<\/p>\n
So what made them take the trip to the mall on one of the year\u2019s rainiest days?<\/p>\n
\u201cWe forgot some people\u2019s presents,\u201d Leon said, chuckling. Her mom, holding her cup with two hands, laughed. \u201cBut we don\u2019t have to tell them that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked how she felt about having to walk with wet socks and shoes while shopping, she said the coffee was helping and she only needed to purchase three gifts.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe some new sneakers and socks,\u201d Leon said, smiling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gladys Hampton stood by the Macy\u2019s entrance at the Del Amo Fashion Center staring at the rain, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108327,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[58246,58243,7,9,8,283,58247,30906,58245,42068,15793,592,62,58244,53054,58233,19,72],"class_list":["post-108326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-14-year-old-niece","tag-ana-leon","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-car","tag-christmas-y","tag-coffee-shop","tag-gladys-hampton","tag-last-minute-shopping","tag-mall","tag-people","tag-rain","tag-rainy-day","tag-sock","tag-trini-johnson","tag-weather","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}