Being a kid

Did you want something when you  were a kid, something you never got but also never outgrew? Not something you needed or some first necesity (I'm well aware I had a very full and happy childhood and I was one of those fortunate kids with a loving family, responsible and amorous parents who did their best to provide and educate) but rather something you liked. And I'm not refering to something super superfluous like a huge TV or anything like that? If you know what I mean, what did you yearn for?

I have two big brothers, and I loved hanging out with them. Still, me and my little brother looked up to the second oldest because he was so smart and fun and always made time for us (the eldest was dating by that time so he never hung out with us). Toño (BB2) had these super cool tennis shoes, they were red and high top. I used to think they were the coolest thing ever since cassete tapes (it was the 80's after all) and I wanted a pair for myself so.very.badly. But this was Mexico, I was 8 and you couldn't get them in my size here. So, no Converse for me.

I went to high school, then college and I could have gotten them maybe but for the fact that they were not cool, thus shoe stores here didn't carry them. Drat the 90's.

And after Y2K, way after, I was married and then we had two babies (God bless their little hearts!) And money was better used buying diapers and such.

Yesterday I went to buy a pair of sandals. The weather is hot here, and they are almost  mandatory if you don't want your toesies to boil! And lo and behold! At the shoe store. A wall. Chock full of tennis. Half of which were (can you guess?) Converse! I got my sandals and was getting ready to leave, and my husband's cousin (who works at the shoe store) saw me looking at them so she forcefully sat me down and got me a selection of them to try on. She was laughing at watching me giggling like a kid, and convinced me to take a pair home.

I'm so happy I got them! I do feel like a kid! And looking at my feet now (I'm wearing them) makes me smile. It some times takes a not so big thing to bring a smile to your adult self, from your childhood yearning! That same brother, Toño, got his wife a childhood dream of hers: a doll with hair. She only had plastic, hairless dolls -you know the kind, with plastic swirls in their head instead of hair - so  for their fourth Christmas he asked me to help him choose a doll for her. He got her the doll with the longest hair we could find, a Geli doll (similar to the American Girl dolls) and got it under the tree. When she unwrapped it, she started crying, and she didn't let go of the doll all day long. She  finally had ( at 36) her doll with hair.