My first plane flight without my parents happened when I was a junior in high school. I flew up to Detroit to visit a friend and to spend some time with my Dad who was up there for work.
As a teenager all alone for the first time, I was a little bit nervous, and somewhat scared about one particular thing. I'd never been in a plane alone. I had to talk to strangers and some people REALLY like to talk to strangers on plane flights (don't sit next to me if you don't want to talk). But that didn't scare me.
I was well aware that planes sometimes don't do so well flying, what with defying gravity and all, and occasionally gravity wins before the plane is actually ready to succumb to its grasp; A.K.A, they crash. But that didn't scare me.
I had never been on a plane that stopped at another airport en route to its final destination. Not sure what to do during the layover, I stayed on the plane. It turned out that I was the only person sitting on the plane at the airport other than the stewardess who sat in front of me and stared at me stating "you know, not all of us can leave the plane if you stay on for this one hour layover." So I got off the plane at Dulles and stood just outside the door by myself for an hour in the jet way. I wasn't even brave enough to walk into the terminal. That shook me up, but that didn't scare me.
No, what scared me was that I was flying Eastern Airlines. There wasn't any problem with that airline that I knew of. I thought they were a decent enough airline, right up until they went out of business. But, no, for me the problem was, that I was going against my family! As best as I could tell at that young age, we were a Delta Family!
I had been on one flight with my entire family before then (that I could remember) and we flew Delta. Ergo, in my youthful mindset, we were Delta people! I also knew that we were Aim Toothpaste, Kraft Cheese, Rayovac Battery, Dixie Cup, Ragu Sauce, Safeguard Soap and Oscar Mayer people! There were so many other items that identified my family and these are just a handful of what I grew up with.
And here I was on an Eastern Airlines flight. I was truly a rebel now.
I had no real self identity and was pretty much reliant on whatever Mom or Dad brought home. Dad got the batteries and car stuff. Mom did the rest. And as a child, I identified with what I had around me; that was all I knew.
But it seems that this is the way it is for kids. As they are building a sense of identity for themselves, they attach to and define themselves by what surrounds them. My child does this with me all the time: "Do we like this team... that color... this milk... that cheese... that air freshener... the French..." It goes on and on and on as kids are trying to accept what is around them.
I'll know she is going through a rebellious stage when she starts pulling for the team playing the Cubs. Well, I've got news for her, she can't stop me from pulling for my Cubbies! And, chances are, the other team is going to win anyway; I know this already.
So, when I moved away from home to go to college I had a horrible dilemma. Well I had several I'm sure but this one comes to mind as quite traumatic at the time. I was 18 years old and I ran out of toothpaste. It was awful!
We had stores on campus but they didn't carry too much, just the basics. Whereas they had toothpaste, they didn't have a large selection, so they didn't have Aim. This was rough on me. I think I went a few days without brushing because I couldn't find Aim toothpaste.
Lucky for me, this was right around the time Rain Man came out and I had a lot of dorm mates talking to me about "course three minutes to Wopner... Yeah" as they were mocking my obsession with getting the right toothpaste. And they were right. I was afraid to step out on my own and declare my independence... from AIM?
I think I found some at the 7 Eleven (or was a Circle K) across the street and I bought up all the tubes they had. These were the tiny tubes that get you through about 4 days but I didn't get 4 days out of the tubes. As I recall my roommate "donated" my tubes to a bunch of drunks who used these tubes to write on the walls of our hall. It turns out these tubes are perfect for using as gel ink crayons.... dammit. I hated that roommate. But his bad-roommate-ness actually helped me evolve as an individual. Well, that and the girl who wouldn't kiss me until I brushed my teeth at that party on my hall.
"Let's kiss," I was such a romantic.
"No. Your breath smells like ass." So was she.
"Be right back. Don't move!"
I grabbed my roommates toothpaste and my toothbrush. I ran down the hall to the bathroom (shared between 40 guys) and brushed my teeth with some salty tasting non-gel, and definitely not Aim, crap. I cupped my hand over my mouth and nose and huffed. Breath smelled clean. I ran back to my dorm room and....
She moved. I never saw her again.
But she helped me move into a new direction. Once I broke the Aim barrier, I was able to make all sorts of moves. I could start washing my underwear again even if I didn't have Tide... Big stuff, like that!
When I was in school I studied a lot of marketing and we learned that our target audience for most products was the 18 to 30-ish age group. These were the people spending the most money and learning what products they liked on their own. I thought this was very timely for me to be learning as I was in that age group and I was learning to spend on my own as well.
However, for the most part, men weren't so high on the list of "target audience." It was the women we were to market most things towards. Historically, women were the big decision makers when it comes to family spending and as much as I fear sounding sexist, I think they still are.
I've grown accustomed to this. I was 100% fine with my Mom choosing what I needed and I still go with her input when she visits me and buys me groceries (I LOVE HER SO MUCH). I've considered passing the reigns onto my daughter, but that is too much power for one elementary kid to have "who need toothpaste Daddy, buy CHOCOLATE!"
I can clearly remember my Dad watching television in the evening awestruck. "What the hell was that commercial even for?" he would ask in utter digust. "It's not for you Dad," I would say "You're 30 years too old and your a man." That didn't seem to help.
Of course, when advertising is aimed at men, there's a hot woman involved. Seriously, I don't know why that girl in a bikini is holding that blender, but, I FREAKIN' NEED THAT BLENDER!!! We're too easy.
Hell, some complete stranger got me to turn my back on 18 years of Aim just for one chance at a kiss that was never meant to be.....
The skank.
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