Shopping-Shopping-Shopping!

Today I took my second grandson Back to School Shopping for the first time. While appreciating this milestone day, it brought back memories of all the shopping trips with my mom.  The earliest memory I can recall when I was shopping with my mom was when I was very small.  My mom would always buy her groceries on Fridays.  We would go to the store and then out to lunch for a treat.  I distinctly remember waiting for her to check out at a store that was located in the plaza where Staples now resides in Gardner.  I remember standing in the front of the store while she waited in the check out line.  I would ask anyone I saw if they would like me to sing for them for ten cents!  Some would pay me and I would sing. I don't remember what I sang but I do remember singing and my mother dragging me out of the store!  Wait....I think it was Christmas songs...As I type this I wonder just how much I embarrassed her....or did she think it was funny...I never really knew and I can't ask her now.

Fast forward to about 6 years ago.  I took my mom to the mall for the last time. My mom was officially diagnosed in July of 2006 with AD but it wasn't until probably about 2009 her doctor stopped her from driving.  I remember taking my mom out helping her to shop.  We went to Sears to find a bathing suit to wear in her pool.  I picked out several and brought her into the changing room and then I stepped out.  After all, she was my mom and I really thought she could try on a bathing suit by herself. To my dismay, I gasped when my mom came out of the changing room in her underwear to find me in Sears.  She had no idea that she was in her underwear....she was just looking for me.  I scooted her back in the changing room as fast as possible and grabbed one of the suits to purchase, helped her put her clothes back on, and we hightailed it out of that store.  At first I thought it was embarrassing to me.  Then I cried at home because I was so sad for her.  Then I realized, I just had to laugh. The other day it showed up on my Face book memories and made me laugh.  I wonder what those sales clerks were thinking when my mom was walking around Sears in her underwear.  However, I am sure that I embarrassed my mom, way more than she ever embarrassed me, over the years!