When I was a little girl, orange Tic Tacs were the best. They tasted a lot like baby aspirin…but you could eat a bunch of Tic Tacs and not die. It wasn’t until years later that science discovered that giving aspirin to kids was a bad idea and can cause liver or brain damage. Yeah, apparently we did a lot of things that could have gotten us killed.
OK, back to the Tic Tacs. They are placed near every checkstand at every grocery store in America, along with many other things we don’t need: Bic lighters, chapstick, batteries, slime, The National Enquirer, Kit Kat bars, Nerds, mini bouncy balls, Dr. Pepper, mints, gum, nail clippers…you get the idea. Grocery store designers are brilliant at knowing what to place at the exit points and just at the right height so little kids can see E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G.
My mother was not the type of person to succumb to begging kids at the checkstand. I knew not to even try. I saw other kids lose their shit in grocery stores and get their fannies whacked. Yes, this was back when a fanny whack in public wasn’t child abuse. Witnessing these horrors in the ice cream aisle, I certainly didn’t want the fanny whack. How embarrassing it was to watch that. I always thought: what an idiot. I played it cool. I’d tell myself: be good and maybe you will get something.
It worked. My mother knew I loved the orange Tic Tacs. I wouldn’t get them very often, but when I did…I cherished every single one. I would suck on one tiny Tic Tac until it became nothing. I used self control to not chew through every last Tic Tac in one day. The container the Tic Tacs come in is a clear box, so you know how many Tic Tacs you have left. It’s like looking into a crystal ball…a vision of when I am near the end. I would often leave that last Tic Tac in the box for days…wondering what it will take for me to eat that last one. I just didn’t want it to be over.
Hmm. It is interesting how more valuable the remaining Tic Tacs were as time went on and less of them remained in the plastic container. It reminds me a lot of hospice, where people know their days are numbered and each day becomes a gift, the minutes and hours more coveted as time moves forward.
It is my hope, that, when it is my time to have the last Tic Tac, may I be unafraid of the empty plastic box and may my mouth water at the juicy goodness of it all.
Thanks, Mom.
Just a girl 