So it's apparently Flashback Week here on the blog because if Alex's post can get me thinking about chewing pens then Crash's post can bring back a lovely moment for me as well...

When I was younger and before I moved to Florida, I lived in the town of Clemmons, North Carolina, right outside of Winston-Salem. My parents were both participants in my bowling league at my father's company and my sister and I would tag along because they really didn't want to leave us at home unattended all night and, well...we were a bit too old to have babysitters by that point.

The last year we lived in North Carolina was 1986. By this time, my father is now living in Florida working at his new job while my mother, sister, and myself were still in North Carolina trying to sell the house so we could move. My mother was still on the bowling league and she would take my sister and myself to the bowling alley where we would do homework and play cards. One night my mother needed to stop off at Zayre's (think of a Wal-Mart before it "Wal-Mart"...basically a low rent version of K-Mart if I want to be realistic) to get a mousetrap because at that hour of the night, it was the only place open.

An eighty-cent mousetrap.

So how the hell did she walk out of there with over $130 in clothes and other assorted stuff. She had a full shopping cart and would have gotten out of the store without people know her real reason for going in there if I hadn't opened up my big mouth and said, "And all you came in here for was a mousetrap."

Mom wasn't amused.

The cashiers were. Mom wasn't.

Me and my big mouth.