A Shopper...

... I am not!
Remember my grandmother, Mama Fish? She was a shopper. I honestly don't really remember doing any real shopping with her. I remember being in a mall once with her and my Daddy Joe and listening to them talk about how to get out. Yes, they were lost inside the mall. :) My most favorite memory of shopping with Mama Fish was the card store. This Lady loved cards. She would stand for what seemed like hours and read the cards. She would laugh and cry. Then we would smell all the little scented candles together. I honestly can't remember how often we did this together, it may have only been once, but it has been a memory that I treasure. She loved to send people cards too. She taught me one day that she gets all her birthday cards together at the beginning of the month, signs them all and addresses the envelops. Then she writes the date on the card where the stamp goes. Then they are all placed in a special place on her table, I can still see it in my mind's eye. She put them there so she would remember to mail them. Back to shopping, apparently, she liked to look at and touch every thing in the store. And she loved shoes. This became apparent to me when Gabrielle was born. Gabrielle was the benefactor of many adorable shoes. Gabrielle inherited the shopping gene!

This became apparent to me very quickly in life. Now I believe Mama Fish shopped that way all the time. Gab only shows the gene when it comes to clothes and shoes. At first I was so very thankful when she learned to shop in thrift stores. Man, she was so creative and could find some great buys! Then I begin to realize that she believed that thrift meant disposable. Only they are never really just disposed of, just shoved to the back on the closet. I do believe the child has enough shoes to wear a different pair for every day of the month for 2 months with out repeating. No, I didn't teach her this, at least not by example. I'm sure it's the Mama Fish gene.
Course, then again after reading blogs I begin to think maybe just maybe she and my Mama Fish are normal and that I'm missing a gene some where. :) Now once Gab has made a purchase she is done. No that's not correct. Once she has spent all her allotted money she is done. Which, if you are the non shopper tagging along is great! If you are a shopper wishing to keep on then you are out of luck.

Me? When I was a teenager I bought brown sandals because they went with every thing. More then one purse? Most of the time I didn't even carry a purse. I also prefer to shop alone. Yikes! That's some thing I probably shouldn't admit to! I just have a really hard time exclaiming over every item on the rack. Oh How cute is this! and so forth. The other thing I can't seem to do is buy just one shirt. Gab is great at that. Not me. When I go shopping, about once every 3 years I buy a whole seasonal wardrobe. You know three outfits and one pair of shoes to match all.

All this comes after a day of shopping with my wonderful daughter. It helped me to love her and trudge after her as I saw the similarities of my Mama Fish come to the surface in her. I don't know if I'll ever learn to be a shopper or if I ever want to learn. However, I can learn to enjoy to share the experience with others.