Every once in awhile the subject of all-time favorite column items comes up.

This afternoon, a trip to the grocery store reminded me of one that occasionally comes to mind.

I don't remember how the subject originally came up. And I can't say for sure just when it ran in The Slice. Probably about 20 years ago.

But the story involved a family outing to the supermarket. Mom, Dad and two teenage daughters.

Apparently, the store was having a fabulous sale on toilet paper. An amazing sale. So the parents decided this was the time to stock up.

They each got shopping carts and directed the girls to do likewise. Then they filled the four carts to overflowing with XL packages of TP.

Looking like a caravan of hearty eating hoarders, they moved through the store with their rolling mounds of toilet paper.

The girls, of course, tried to be invisible. I mean, what if one of their peers saw them? Surely they would die.

What if some boy they liked saw them? Shudders. Can you imagine?

The thing is, the parents knew this was embarrassing the girls.(You don't raise a couple of daughters without learning a few things.)  So what did the parents do? They found reasons to make a couple of extra laps around the shopping aisles, pushing the mountains of toilet paper for all to see.

Perhaps, when you are a parent, you have to enjoy such moments when presented to you.

The two girls probably have families of their own by now. I wonder if they pay attention to when toilet paper goes on sale.

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