Reflections

I’m Turning into my Parents!

• By fannieb
• September 25, 2014
• No Comments

Yesterday on my morning walk I decided to extend it a bit by doing some laps in the local Target. During my second lap, I noticed that the notebooks they had stocked up on ahead of the back-to-school rush were now on sale, 70% off. So the wide-ruled single subject notebooks were either 6 or 9 cents apiece. This was a deal I couldn’t pass up. I didn’t have any cash on me so I decided to head home and come back to buy several of these notebooks. I purchased 10, for a grand total of 85 cents! Even the cashier remarked on what a deal I was getting.

As I walked back home for the second time, I couldn’t help but think about my father. My mind flashed back to that late fall day the two of us were at a Staples and he was scooping up bunches of composition books; the ones with the black and white marble design on the cover. They were 19 cents each and although he had retired from teaching school he couldn’t help but stock up on them. While I was cleaning out his house after his death, about five years later, I found a few of those notebooks, still unused.

But not only am I doing things that remind me of my father, I’m also exhibiting some of my mother’s behavior. Today, as I purchased a snack from the cafeteria at work I pocketed several packets of salt so I’d have them handy at my desk or on the go. As I did, I was immediately reminded of my mother who hoarded salt packets in her pocketbook. She hadn’t always done this. Not until after she had been admitted to the hospital and had been put on a sodium restricted diet did she begin to do this. In her later years, her appetite was already off and without salt to pep up the flavor of food, eating became even less appealing. So, she learned to squirrel away salt packets in case of such an event.

Hoarding notebooks and salt packets – two small signs that I am turning into my mother and father!

Photo Credit: Ben Sutherland