PORT CLINTON, Ohio (AP) -- An Ohio man has made it his mission to buy only goods made in America.

Retired teacher Dave Pitts spends hours in local Port Clinton shopping malls looking for items made in the USA.

So far he has amassed American-made lawn chairs, salad bowls, bath mats, T-shirts, rawhide chews for his dog and other goods.

The 56-year-old Pitts tells the Sandusky Register ( http://bit.ly/q8tyk6 ) that his mission started in August 2010 when he was shopping in a store "whose name rhymes with mall cart."

Pitts says he started looking to see where goods were made and the store "was like a Chinese trade fair."

That's when he launched his campaign to rebuild America's manufacturing base.

He says he worries about how the decline in American manufacturing has hit the middle class.

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Information from: Sandusky Register, http://www.sanduskyregister.com/cgi-bin/liveique.acgi$schfrontpage?frontpage