Part 2

I have made a choice, not sure if it was the correct one, but here we with another of my choices, lets see what happens.

Weeks after my wonderful night on Halloween I soon turned 13, I was lucky to receive cash for my birthday from my parents and grandmother. I had a wallet full of $40 dollars burning a hole in my pocket.

Of course, my mom suggested I put it into my savings account. I had opened one up at a local back and had about $200 saved up. But me being 13, I wanted to spend it. We ended up compromising and I put $20 into my savings account.

So, the Saturday after my birthday I rode my bike to the local mall and went to Montgomery Wards to shop around. Back then they were the cheaper version of a Sears/Kohl's. Any ways they always had sales and it was my favorite place to browse. It being fall their selection was more geared toward cold weather. I browsed around until I found the clearance racks in the junior’s section. To my luck I found some one-piece swimwear on the racks and got excited.

I could not believe my luck and started to run my fingers along the gusset to get a feel of the material. It was luxurious feeling that material, I knew immediately I wanted this suit. It was a pink tank suit made by Speedo. I must have been lost in thought because I was startled when a sales lady tapped my on the shoulder to get my attention. I got scared and my heart was in my throat as I turned to the sales lady behind me.

“It’s OK, if you would like you can try that on in the fitting room.” She said and pointed over to the fitting rooms.

I was frozen in place and suddenly lost the ability to speak and mumbled something incoherent. She just grabbed the swimsuit off the rack and gently guided me to the fitting rooms. She ushered me in and closed the door. “Take all the time you need.” She quietly said.

I just stood there in that small space wondering what the hell just happened. I’ve been giving permission to try on the most beautiful swimsuit I’ve ever encountered. What to do, is all I could think about. I then ever so quietly opened the door to the fitting room and looked around. No one around, the lady must have given me some space or was helping someone else.

Now the choice, my 13-year-old then dropped that swimsuit on the floor and ran out of that store as quickly as I could, unlocked my bike and peddled as fast as I could towards home still with that $20 dollars in my wallet.

Looking back to then 1983 I could have made a different choice but was stuck with it. More choices are to come.