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Fri 11 Jul, 2008 09:29 am
This is cute....
My mother taught me to read when I was four years old (her first
mistake).
One day, I was in the bathroom and noticed one of the cabinet doors was
ajar.
I read the box in the cabinet. I then asked my mother why she was
keeping
'napkins' in the bathroom. Didn't they belong in the kitchen?
Not wanting to burden me with unnecessary facts, she told me that those
were for 'special occasions' (her second mistake).
Now fast forward a few months...It's Thanksgiving Day, and my folks are
leaving to pick up my uncle and his wife. We were all given
assignments while they were gone.
Mine was to set the table.
When they returned, my uncle came in first and immediately burst into
laughter.
Next came his wife who gasped, then began giggling.
Next came my father, who roared with laughter.
Then came Mom, who almost died of embarrassment when she saw each place
setting on the table with a 'special occasion' Kotex napkin at each
plate, with the fork carefully arranged on top. I had even tucked the
little tail in so they didn't hang off the edge!!
My mother asked me why I used these and, of course, my response sent
the other adults into further fits of laughter.
'But, Mom, you said they were for special occasions!!!'
That is funny Chai...I can only imagine how embarrassed your Mom was.
oh this wasn't me.....it was just a joke someone sent me.
although, I remember seeing this pretty violet box occassionally in my moms closet, sneaking a peek and wondering "what in the world are these used for"?
Apparantly John Lennon didn't know what they were for either. Remember that story where he was drunk in a club and stuck a sanitary napkin on his head?
He was apparantly being abusive to the wait staff, and asked a waitress "Do you know who I am?"
"Yeah, you're some a$$hole with a kotex stuck to his head"
HA! that is funny...
I told my boys they were big bandaids...I was not quite ready to get into all the details...not yet...it is coming soon enough.
mismi wrote:HA! that is funny...
I told my boys they were big bandaids...I was not quite ready to get into all the details...not yet...it is coming soon enough.
That's how I handled it with my sons, mismi. I do remember asking my mom about the Tampax I found in the bathroom though, and she gave me the "I'll tell you when you're older" line. Faked her out though -- I asked the babysitter, who just happened to be a neighbour boy
(They reminded me of those paper wrapped straws -- I couldn't imagine a milkshake that thick!)
yeah, I got the "when you're older" Like it was going to be so horrible
Big Bandaids!?
Good Lord Mismi. Don't be surprised when you come home one day and one of your boys has one wrapped around his leg.
"don't worry mom, I was a pretty big cut. I'm glad you told me about those big bandaids."
What really mystified me as a child was this really pretty soothing colored box, which you couldn't talk about.
I thought it must have something to do with sex, which I did know about (after a fashion). What are they doing with that thing? Do they have to use the whole box? It must be something really weird.
I vaugely remember thinking the woman had to tie them all over her body.
I'm going to have to think about this....If I was in charge of designing the package, WWCD?
One of my favorite family memories of growing up in the late '60s was the dinner table conversation the night my little brother (age 10, I think) explained in detail how Tampax were used for making Molotov cocktails, and wanted to know who my mother was going to bomb.
Tampax- the Anarchist's Friend!
And if you are wearing one you get to go horseback riding and hiking and um, waterskiing (I think).
Joe(Maybe just be in the boat)Nation
And don't forget about tennis!
I forgot tennis.
Joe(Golf too, right?)Nation
This is piquant for me. I remember asking my mother about what those napkins were, and getting a blurry answer. I was probably ten. (My mother never told me anything - thus my total surprise while climbing the Washington Monument at thirteen - and only decades later can I sympathize, re her own background). Might have been in the IGA store.. circa '51, '52.
Oh, our grade school had an hour lecture for girls, with slides and drawings, but y'know, I didn't really get it.
I'll add..
I'm older, but not all that much older than a fair portion of a2kers. There was a BIG change in conversation between the early sixties and late sixties.
Ha!
I have actually used mini-pads as a big bandaid a couple of times!
Once when my dog's tail got slammed in the door and another time on a camp out where we were hiking and the first aid kit was back at the tent. Those things are damn handy I tell you.
As for my "learning" I had two big sisters who loved to lord their puberty over me. Nothing was a mystery.
Two Newfies, Bob and Ted, were down on their luck in their remote outport town in Newfoundland, what with the Cod all gone etc. So they decided to head off to the big city of Toronto to try their luck.
So they took the ferry to New Brunswick, and caught a bus to Ontario. But when the bus dropped them off in downtown Toronto they found that they had spent all their money. They only had five dollars between them. Ted asked what they could possibly do with just five dollars. But Bob said, "Don't worry. I'll fix this. Wait here for me while I go into this drug store". And he went into the Shopper's Drug mart.
After ten minutes he came out again and showed what he had bought to Ted. It was a box of Tampax. Ted said "What, are you crazy? What the hell good is a box of Tampax?" And Bob said, well look, with this we can do a lot. It says right here that with Tampax you can go horseback riding, play tennis and go swimming".
<falls down on floor laughing>
~~~~
I think I remember that little brochure. That's where I got the idea that nail polish was important <looks at mani and pedi>
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