lightbulb moment

while on our lovely beach vacation, my family swapped memories of our childhood and i heard a hilarious little diddy that blew my mind & it goes like this:


i was 4 years old and my parents had done seemingly everything they could think of to get me to hand over my favorite vice: the pacifier. different praise & punishments were attempted - the worst being that my dad took all my pacifiers and cut the nipples off - traumatizing!

i hear i stashed one away for safe keeping under my pillow until he found it & cut the nip off right before my tear-filled eyes. finally my mom had what appeared to be a stroke of genius...

apparently i accompanied my mom on occasion to a certain department store & i had a real thing for these black patent leather mary-janes. after a handful of times of begging & pleading, my mom put my desire to good use. she paid the store clerk in advance for these amazing black patent leather mary-janes and arranged for me to pay for the shoes in another fashion.

she told me i could have the shoes, but i would have to pay for them. my little eyes looked at her questionably, and then she said "if you give him your pacifier, he will give you those shoes."

spit covered, but well loved, that little piece of plastic had got me through all the tough times a four year old might experience. i loved that thing so much when i was a baby and couldn't figure out how to keep it in my mouth, my mom put me in a bonnet (tragic), tied the left and right strings to each sides of my pacifier so it wouldn't ever fall farther than i could reach.

but i wanted those black patent leather mary-janes more. toddling over to the clerk, i dropped my world into his palm.

what may appear to be a cutesy personal anecdote finally explained why a closet and 2 bins in the garage are over-flowing & yet the shoe thirst cannot be quenched. i traded the only material possesion in the world that could calm & soothe me for a pair of black patent leather mary-janes!