ok, all this talk about shampoo...

I was maybe 6 years old. My mom was a schoolteacher and my dad made cars (back when we made cars and things in the US) so I was home alone.

The mail came with a free sample of shampoo in an "unbreakable" bottle. We call it plastic now. I don't know what it was called then. Well, "unbreakable" implies something to a young inquisitive boy...

I don't know what the brand name was, but I couldn't get it all cleaned up before my mom got home. We lived in a split level, and I chucked that little bottle down on the lower level and proved them wrong! Unbreakable my butt!

The false advertising defense at my trial didn't work - I still got grounded...

Tom

oh yeah - another one...

I was a rip roarin' hippie. I even had a nickname - Free. There are numerous people in this world that don't know me by any other name other than "Free." I would flash the peace sign and say "stay free" every time I passed somebody.

I did this for years. Including in the Army. Then one day in 1983 or 1984, some young buck fresh from the world (we were stationed in Germany) replied back to me "maxi-pads."

I didn't understand his response until I came back to the US and saw the commerical for Sta-Free Maxi Pads on tv. I was a little disturbed by this change in events...

Tom

Wow thanks Tom I think I just popped a stitch! But that was funny!

What school did you go to???? I think that you might have
been a little slow in your math.

According to the way I was taught I am the 2yrs younger person.
Especially it still was not told to me what was really happening. hehe
I was still the little nieve, darling, sweet, little, innocent girl. Didn't
grow up till 12 that is when all the girlfriends started telling me stuff that made me blush


Jappy

Ahh the good old days...NOT!

This is why I get all the free samples I can get, so I can try new stuff!

I've never been a "brand specific" girl. I run out of something I get the next new thing. The only problem is that I have to run out of it even if it doesn't work before I can buy something else! That's where samples come into play!

I guess the lesson of "use it up, wear it out, make do or do without" still resonates!

On the subject of onset of menstruation, didn't anyone else get that book "A Doctor talks to 9-12 year olds"?

I was the oldest girl, Mom had a hysterectomy and I had NO idea WTH was going on when Mom called me in from the vicious kickball game to tell me to go change my shorts and took me to the store and bought a box of Kotex. I thought I was dying. I asked her years later why she never told me anything before it happened, and she said NO ONE she knew ever got it when they were NINE!

I guess times have changed. Girls get their periods at a younger and younger age now, they have underarm and pubic hair wayyy younger than they did back in the day. I was an anomaly back at 9, now it's not at all unusual.

NOW WHERE IS MY MENOPAUSE????

HA HA I stole it! I'll be happy to give it back. You can have the hot flashes and mood swings and night sweats and day sweats and the brittle hair and the dry skin and the water weight and the chocolate weight and the bitter old woman feeling.....

and I'm only 28! Yet they still convinced me to get my tubes tied.

My sister was 10 years older than me, used her own money to buy hot pants for herself and me. She knew my mom never would. Thank goodness I was only 13-14 and a lean little thing who could wear them. They were brown and jersey like and a little stretchy. Later she had a maxi dress and granny boots to the knee and I (being the same size) got to wear them to High School!