Waco has wiffle ball, but Laurel's hitting homers with Made in the USA
Scotsman General Store, Laurel, Miss.
Sara and I ended our brief-but-sweaty morning run at Chip and Joanna Gaines’ magnificent Silos complex in downtown Waco, Texas.
The stores weren’t open yet, but that didn’t prevent us from taking a few swings on the wiffle ball field. Besides the embarrassing confirmation that years-ago shoulder surgery and/or the dreaded “yips” prevent me from throwing a legitimate strike, it was a magical moment.
What Chip and JoJo, as they’re known to HGTV devotees, have wrought in Waco is astounding, turning a couple of disused city blocks into a major tourist destination. There’s a market, a home store, a bakery, coffee shop, themed shops in cottages, food trucks. There’s a beautifully restored church and the ball field, the latter an homage to the minor league Katy Park that once stood on the site.
It’s hard not to be impressed with the physical attributes of what the Magnolia brand offers in Waco. But too much of the experience is driven by rampant consumerism seemingly without a purpose other than to glorify all things Chip and JoJo.
As a devotee of Made in USA, I was disappointed (yet wholly unsurprised) with the prevalence of imports on the Magnolia shelves.
A nickel table clock: made in India. A herringbone ceramic vase: made in China. A reclaimed wood tray: made in Thailand. Hats: made in Bangladesh, China, Mexico. The American-made products were only incidental; we purchased a wooden bookmark and stickers.
But we knew that better days for Made in the USA were in the offing.
Ben and Erin
What amounted to an 11-day, nearly 3,600-mile road trip, also brought us to Laurel, Miss., the home town of our favorite HGTV couple, Ben and Erin Napier. Waco was a convenient stop between Dallas and Austin; Laurel was a destination.
Our connection to the Napiers is an organic one: We’ve bought from their company, Laurel Mercantile, for years, before their TV show, “Home Town” had even debuted. In fact, when Laurel Mercantile sent me the wrong item once, part of the make-good was a recipe booklet signed by Erin. We had no idea who she was and almost accidentally threw it away.
Of course, Ben and Erin are household names now, having renovated homes in the Laurel area for several seasons on HGTV. Like Chip and JoJo, the Napiers seem like fundamentally decent, caring people, raising a family and investing in their hometown.
You’ll find a patch of artificial turf beside Laurel Mercantile, similar to the surface of Katy Field in Waco, but our shopping experience in Mississippi felt so much more authentic than in Texas.
Unlike Magnolia, Laurel Mercantile and its sister company, Scotsman General Store, offer nearly 100 percent American-made merchandise. (One notable exception: tee shirts, which in a post-visit email I’ve encouraged the Napiers to reconsider.)
I had been eyeing Scotman’s waxed-cotton ball cap for more than a year, but I waited until I could pick one up in person. We made purchases at both stores; we even went back to Scotsman for a couple of items. Everything we bought was Made in the USA.
Pumpkin patch
What’s more, we spent hours in Laurel, patronizing shops downtown for cookies, sweet tea and bagged coffee, classic Necco wafers (sadly now made in Mexico). We had lunch at a food truck that leases its space next to Scotsman.
We also took a self-guided walking tour of historic homes in downtown Laurel. We parked in front of the First United Methodist Church, which was in the midst of offering a weeks-long pumpkin patch. It might be the most quaint thing I’ve ever seen.
We loved Laurel for the beauty of its buildings and the warmth of its people.
But when we go back (and I have no doubt that we will), it will be because we believe in what Ben and Erin (and their business partners) are doing to promote Made in the USA.
For on that score, they’re hitting it out of the park.