The simple things

I was talking with Schuyler today as we were driving home from Publix (I was planning a split pea soup for dinner) and we were reflecting on childhood. He was telling me that almost every other weekend in his youth his dad, step mom, brother, and two step brothers would all go to the movies. We both marveled at how much money this must have cost and how lucky he was.

You see, I never got to go to the movies as a child. I mean, on my birthday I could go with a friend. But a weekend movie? Just for fun? That never happened. It was just too expensive. Even when it was my birthday, my mother would sneak in home-popped corn and candy.

More often, my dad would pick up my sister and I from Darcy's daycare on Friday. (Oh, and was that place the absolute bane of my existance. Darcy forced us to watch Days of Our Lives and eat tuna casserole. All the fun toys were upstairs and we were NEVER allowed up the stairs. She let us up there once in the entire time I attended her daycare. And even now I look back at that day as one of the greatest days I was alive. All other days at Darcy's day care I usually look back upon with abject horror.) Anyway, where was I?

My dad would pick us up and we'd go to Mr. Gs, which was a gas station/sub shop/movie rental storefront on Highway 20. Sadie and I would get to pick out one movie, and one box of candy to share (usually Twizzler Pull N Peels). We'd go home and mom would pop popcorn in the Stir Crazy and then serve it with farmers cheese melted on top of it. (No butter in the Brown household. At least not for popcorn.) Sadie and I would pop in the movie and Dad would always humor us, no matter how bad the movie was. He'd laugh with us. Sometimes, when the movie was over, he'd suggest that it was so good we could watch it again before he returned it. I remember watching Aladin over and over again, my father never complaining. (I had such a CRUSH on that hottie cartoon Aladin. I subsequently got the Aladin sheet set for my bed and it was practically erotica for me.)

Such fond memories of this time in my life-- a time when we did not have the money to go to the movies.

Maybe I need to be a little more creative in my life, like my parents. I've been spending too frivolously on things recently. Too many lunches and too many movies. It's time to appreciate the lessons I have been taught.