Have you
ever watched the movie Father of the Bride starring Steve Martin? One of
my favorite scenes is when Steve Martin’s character visits his daughter’s
future in-laws’ home. He asks to use the restroom, while there, he snoops
through the medicine cabinet. Then touches a class mirror and it come off in
his hand…which leads into my story for today.
One day, not
so long ago, I hung out at my mom’s house after work, we watched a movie, had
munchies, and I decided to stay the night. This wasn’t the first time I’ve
stayed with her, so I keep a set of toiletries there. On this occasion, my son decides
to infiltrate our girl’s night. He too stayed the night.
After a
peaceful slumber, I got up, turned the shower on, prepared to step in, only to
discover there was no soap. And that’s when the scavenger hunt began, with the
medicine cabinet. Let me first mention that this is an upstairs bathroom that
mom doesn’t use much. Her main room for relief is on the first floor.
I opened the
upstairs medicine cabinet in search of soap. There was no soap, but I discovered
something interesting… a 15-ounce container of cornstarch baby powder. It was
not Johnson & Johnson, but an off-brand powder that looked like it had been
there since my son was a baby, and he’s 25 years…not months.
I yelled
down the stairs to my mother, “Do you think we can get rid of this old baby
powder?”
She laughed
then joined my search for soap.” Did you look in the linen closet?”
“Yes.” She
didn’t believe I looked thoroughly. I
heard her footsteps on the hardwood steps leading upstairs.
Mom rummaged
through the upstairs linen closet, she lifted towels, shifted items on the
floor of the cabinet. She was successful, the hunt was over. Mom found a bar of
soap. She was excited as she handed the soap to me. It was a bar of Ivory soap…an
old, old bar. The label was stuck to the soap, and the writing on the label was
faded.
I told my
mom, “Thanks, but that’s ok. I’ll shower at home.”
Mom and I
shared a hearty laugh, and I vowed never to go through her medicine cabinet unaccompanied.
The moral of
the story, if I were to give it one, would be – don’t snoop through other people’s
medicine cabinets, you may not like what you discover.
What’s in
your medicine cabinet? If it’s old, throw it out.
