GRAS 11.

So, I was all prepared to share my surprise with you about how The Short One, with his little fuzzy melon and expressive eyes, is looking more and more like his Daddy at this age.  Little Fella was MINE.  MY lookalike.  ME sans pigtails, frilly dress and patent leather shoes.  The Tall One claims the oldest son and The Big One w/ his hair and his eyes and his everything.  The Short One looked like ME.  But, decades of photos copied from old family slides onto a teensy memory stick prove The Short One has some Tall genes.  (I pretend to be disgruntled ... but really?  How could I not love that??)
BUT, to share my surprise, I have to mess w/ the teensy memory stick and the aforementioned DECADES of pictures and well ... no.  Not tonight.
What truly surprised me today anyway, was MAMA!!
Mama told me she WISHED there was a Chick Fil A in her town.
This is likely shocking only to me.  Because who DOESN'T  love the Chick?  (Based on lines of cars this evening, not many!)
But, THIS revelation from Mama is ... WOW.
When I was a pre-teen and shopped for back to school clothes with Mama in the only indoor collection of stores near our hometown ... this was was called a MALL?? ... my favorite ... and the only ... place to eat was Chick Fil A.  There was but one thing on the menu.  The "original" sandwich.  And it was served with, of course, the pickle.
Mama hated those sandwiches.
"Do we have to eat at Chick Fil A?" she'd ask.
She explained that sometimes there were mystery chewy objects in the meat.  And there WAS that pickle.
She was always a good sport.
We always ate the sandwich.
And the pickle.
It was yearly happy.  (Just one of many happy, annual traditions.)
But, to hear Mama "long" for Chick Fil A today?
Took me back to Orange Julius and Pac-Man.
Calvin Klein jeans and Sperry Top-Siders.
The mall.
Those shopping trips.
Like 80s fashion made new (legwarmers are back?) ... I'm surprised ... but I always knew she'd come around.