You Probably Had To Be There

After my sister, Melissa, had her kids, the logistics of traveling from Michigan to North Carolina seemed insurmountable. Our time together was mostly crammed into a few days every summer, when we would travel north. But she managed a few trips. One was in 2003, when she and Alex and Avery packed an enormous amount of stuff into my dad's red van and let him drive them through the mountains to Greensboro.

Her memories of that road trip are not what I want to share here.

I have a memory from that visit that still makes me laugh out loud, even though it will probably seem ridiculous to you. But that's one of the best parts about having a sister--sharing laughter that no one else can understand.

One evening we went to Target. I'm sure we had a good reason, and it wasn't that Target, as wonderful as it is, was one of the top tourist attractions in our town.

Have you ever gotten the giggles when you're in the store--you know, when the laughter itself is a drug that you just can't quit? Well, we were walking through the aisles, cracking ourselves up over everything we saw. Buzzing through "Women's Shoes," I spotted two pairs of identical white rubber slides--the kind you just slide your feet into. They were like flipflops without the thing between the toes. Instead, they had a wide band over the instep. The bands on these slides were clear plastic. They were ridiculous and they were awesome. "Look," I said. "We need these!"

Once we got home, we couldn't wait to model our new shoes. We both had the same idea...How funny it would be if we tripped around the house with the elastic thread holding them together still attached. We were hysterical, and our laughter was entirely appropriate. "I'm going to keep the elastic on mine forever!" we declared.

And we did. For a while. A short time later, as we sat in the kitchen playing games with the kids, Missy got a pair of scissors, crawled under the table and cut the elastic between my feet. We laughed until we both had tears. I'm sure the kids had no idea what was so funny, but they were delighted to see us enjoying ourselves so immensely. It was a moment I never want to forget. I wish I had a picture of those crazy shoes. I wish I'd kept the shoes. I'm thankful that I've kept the memory.