Monkey See

I had to get some things at the local Target tonight and I started to think about Tam and years gone by. Before there was a Target in Fairmount, there was a mall called Fairmount Fair and I was thinking about that place, as I was heading home.

Back in the Seventies, we loved to frequent Spencer's Gifts in the mall and I remember Tammie being fascinated with black lights and these crazy fluorescent posters. They had all sorts of nonsense at Spencer's and we bought a few whoopie cushions and pet rocks along the way. One of my most disappointing purchases were these crazy Sea Monkeys that I just had to have.

Tammie had baby-sat for a girl on our street who had them and she came back home with these great stories of how the sea monkeys fought and did all of these wild acrobatic tricks. I had been familiar with them from the numerous comic book ads, but there was no chance that my mother was going to let me buy any. Eventually I wore her down, though, and I picked some up at Spencer's.

I couldn't wait to get these things home and start my new sea monkey kingdom. Once safely in my room, I opened all the little containers and was immediately discouraged by this dust that was supposed to be the sea monkeys. You see, I have never been too good at reading directions, but I swear that I did everything correctly with these "monkeys". Despite my efforts, all I was able to raise were a bunch of little slimy blobs. I didn't know at the time that sea monkeys were actually brine shrimp and looked like blobs. Of course, it didn't help that Tam was so insistent that this girl on the street had beautiful pink sea monkeys with crowns and that I must have screwed something up.

Get the Candy!

I will never forget the Easter in Camillus, when my sister realized that she forgot the candy and decided to travel the three hours back to her home in Ravena to retrieve it. We all tried to convince her that it was a nutty idea, but she was having nothing of it. As Mike tried to point out to her, she could have gone to the local grocery store the next day and picked up candy at 50% off, but that wasn't Tam. Instead she made us all worried sick as she went out into the night. She arrived back at my parents sometime in the early morning with chocolate bunnies in hand. I am not sure why I didn't offer to go with her, but I probably thought it was such a goofy idea that I refused to entertain it. I don't recall sleeping much that night, though, because I was worried about her.