Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Memory Lane

*picture credit here

I grew up in the desert.

On 19th street.

Ms. Betty was our next door neighbor.

She was also the Avon lady.

(On a side note, she was also the person who brought clean clothes for me one morning in the first grade when I peed my pants in the library. I remember that like it was yesterday...but i digress.)

I loved Ms. Betty the Avon lady.

She would give me lipstick samples. How I loved those little, white, one-inch tubes of pointy lipsticks, with the color name printed on the bottom in black print. They weren't like the samples you get nowadays in their hermetically sealed, one-time-use, plastic wrappers. In my eight-year old mind, it was an actual tube of lipstick!

I do remember getting in trouble with the girl down the street for using those samples on the sidewalk for hopscotch. Ms. Betty the Avon lady did not think that was good use of lipstick.

I never did it again.

My mom must've bought lots of Avon from Miss Betty. I loved to look at the 5x7 catalog that came with every filled order. It seemed we had lots of them laying around.

I'll never forget the Chocolate Chip lip balm. It not only smelled and tasted like chocolate chip cookies but it came in this really cool compact that looked like a cookie!


I really wanted one. Like, I'll-be-your-best-friend-and-feed-the-dog-and-always-do-my-chores-and-never-ask-for-any-thing-else-for-the-rest-of-my-life, wanted one.


My heart just beats with excitement thinking about it.

It was in my Christmas stocking that year. Joy!

Over the years I've asked my friends if they remembered that wonderful Chocolate Chip Lip Balm, and they've nodded their heads with vague recollection. I've never been sure if they really remembered and all my Google searches came up empty...had I just made it up?

This morning, prompted by Bye Bye Pie's blast from the past post, I took my own trip down the (Avon) Memory Lane, and found a blog post called Avon Calling (posted last year) about all those fun Avon products I grew up with!  I had forgotten I had the strawberry lip balm too...

Oh, the memories!

Tell me, what do you remember having as a kid that you just loved?

*Picture Credit: Every Day Beauty

11 comments:

Rebecca said...

I LOVED the little lipsticks that were like real...My grandmother always had them saved for me!

Lisa said...

I DO remember that chocolate chip lip balm, and the strawberry...and the tiny little sample tubes of lipstick. I loved those little tubes of lipstick too!

I am so enjoying all these reminiscing posts...I did one recently about all the old toys I remember, and another one about the tv shows I grew up with. Love these trips down Memory Lane...even if they do make me feel old!!

stephanie j. said...

I remember those little tiny lipsticks! I can remember the smell too. Avon lipstick smelled really good for some reason. Smelled "grown up".

Gretchen said...

Love's Baby Soft Perfume in the pink and clear bottle. I LOVED that stuff in my elementary days.

Then in high school I loved the yellow and white striped box of Georgio Armani perfume.

This makes me laugh because now I don't wear perfume at all and it usually makes me gag if I can smell it on someone else. :)

Amber said...

I had a Ms. Betty, too!! Only mine was Ms. Margaret. And she smelled like baby powder and coffee all the time! And shaved her eyebrows and then drew them back in with a black magic marker (or so it seemed).

Sweet memories.

Anonymous said...

oo very fun! I would have loved that lip balm! I remember the fingernail polish that you could peel off!

Tracey said...

OOOOOO...I HAD THAT CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE LIP STUFF! I had totally forgotten about it, then I saw your picture, and all these fun memories flooded my brain.

My aunt gave it to me. I love my aunt. She was so.very.awesome!

Thanks for the memories..:D

Anonymous said...

I ran into Betty the Avon Lady at Fry's. I wasn't paying attention, as usual, she surprised me by greeting me "Hi Fil?" Of course she asked about you and wondered how you were.
She said that she was well but commented that we were all getting old. I wonder what she meant by that since she still recognized me.
Dad

Andrea said...

I so remember those little lipsticks! Too funny!

I have given you the Versitile Blogger Award...Please stop by my blog to pick it up!

Andrea

Amy said...

One of my friends had those lipstick samples to play with whenever we played at her house, since her mom was an Avon lady.

His Girl said...

my mom was an avon lady for a while (like a month or two)

That means I had all the awesome decanters, the box full of samples, and OH YES THAT COOKIE LIPGLOSS.


manalive you just made me smile.

xoxo

(ps- all caught up on your blog, finally. i wish i weren't such a slacker... reading your stuff makes my day)