Back in the 1980s sometime, I cannot remember my exact age, I stumbled upon a Popeye poseable PVC figure at Gizzy’s convenience store. I remember wanting this and being told that I would have to save my money to purchase it.
This was a good lesson that Mom was trying to teach me. Save your money and you can afford the things you want in life! As a kid, I don’t remember really understanding it at first but the realization quickly came in the form of “Oh man, I have an allowance of 25 cents a week and it costs $1…this will take forever!” (in kid time, of course).
But I diligently saved up my coin and was super excited when the day came that I had saved up enough money to purchase Popeye the Sailor Man.
We went over to Gizzy’s and to my dismay, there were no Popeye figures left to purchase. There were only Olive Oyl. Who wants Olive Oyl?
I remember being disappointed, but I also remember leaving with the Olive Oyl figure so I guess I just thought my money needed to be spent on something.
It would be interesting to know if Mom even remembers this moment. I wonder if she felt disappointed to see that the figure I had saved my money for was long gone. Or perhaps it wasn’t that big of a deal.
This was a defining moment in my life as it shaped my actions today…I tend to need to get something THE DAY IT COMES OUT in fear of missing out on it. I remember collecting comic books and walking in -40 degree weather to the corner store on the Wednesday instead of the Thursday in fear of having an issue sold out on me. I still have a tendency to order things immediately when available on Amazon. I guess I can trace my behaviour back to this moment in my life.
I always wonder what I’ll do if this experience comes back to haunt me and Sierra asks to buy something in the store but we want her to save her money for it. I suppose my fear of losing out on this item will make me, the parent, purchase the item secretly in case they do run out of stock.