Back To School Shopping

     Page Two Hundred Seventy-Seven
     I've mentioned back to school shopping before, but please humor me here. This is a very pleasant memory. If I re-write the same blog once a year, that's okay.
     During the 1990's and 2000's, there were about 5, 6 or 7 summers when I went down to North Carolina to visit my oldest sister and her children. The kids have always responded very well to me and my sister and brother-in-law knew it. So, every year I received the job of taking the kids for their back to school shopping. It wasn't dull.
     Heather, the oldest, was and is a fashionista. With her, it was more about reigning in the spending. We liked a lot of the same things so there was little arguing. She knew exactly what she wanted. I was just along to hang out and gossip with. Now that she's a financial analyst, she doesn't have to reign in the spending as much. (I knew I'd arrived when she invited me to join her and some friends to get coffee and bagels in the morning on the first day of her high school senior year. What an honor that was... my God! In uncledom that's the equivalent of an Oscar.)
     Michael, the middle one, was pure boy. He was rough and tumble and one of the few shopping mistakes I ever made with the kids was the day I allowed him to purchase a cold water only, slightly fancy, ramie shirt. If it had been a touch less fancy and even $10.00 cheaper, I think his mom and dad wouldn't have made us return it. Oh well. (Honestly though, I still wouldn't completely trust him with that shirt, even if today he is a nuclear engineer and the world's coolest person.) 
     Jonathon, the youngest and most sensitive, simply hated wearing clothing. Covering his God-given body was an affront to him. If not for the fact that he's an environmental engineer today, he'd probably live in a nudest colony. As it is, he took 3 sabbaticals from college to go surfing by himself, once to Indonesia and twice to Nicaragua. His friends tease him that one of the reasons he took those trips is so he could live naked on the beach. Imagine trying to buy clothing for a child like that. (Nobody in my family reads my blog. So I'll admit that in my Last Will and Testament, which might come to be needed in about 2050 or so, I request Jonathon to be in charge of my funeral. Of my 14 nieces and nephews I think his sensitivity is closest to mine. I'm the youngest in my family, too. )
     But, of course, it was never really about the clothing; it was about spending time with them. All those trips to the mall are wonderful memories. Even breaking up the incessant fighting between Michael and Jonathon are great memories. (All three are best friends today.)
     Very busy parents rarely want to hear my opinions, but here's one anyhow: Savor the back to school shopping. You'll miss it in 20 years. I promise.