The Thin Mint Incident

It's Girl Scout Cookie Time, and almost everyone I know is ordering thin mints...except me.

You see, thin mints and I have a history.

And it has left it's mark on me.  Enough that I will never be able to eat a thin mint again.

It all started when I was about 6 or 7 years old.  My family decided to take a vacation in a mobile home.  It was a long trip and my mom had packed food that was supposed to last for the entire trip.  Among the treats that she packed were boxes of girl scout cookies, but we were told that we weren't allowed to eat them until my mom said.

One afternoon, while my parents were up front driving, my three sisters and I were in the very back of the large mobile home, with the door shut.  My two older sisters, (who were teenagers at that point), decided to ignore my mother's rule and dig into the thin mints.

But because I was that annoying little sister who didn't always do the right thing, but was more than happy to tattle when someone else didn't do the right thing, I placed my chubby little hands on my chubbier little hips and declared that I was going to tell mom that they were eating all the cookies.

Ummm, not a wise decision considering that they were much older and much bigger than I was.

They held me down and literally shoved thin mints into my mouth to keep me quiet.

And as soon as I could get free, I ran to the front of the bus and told my mom, half breathless and half full of cookies, "They're eating all the thin mints!!!".

But instead of believing me and punishing them for disobeying and trying to keep me quiet, she took one look at my cookie covered face and yelled, "Ricki, sit down!  I told you to stay out of those cookies!  Your not allowed to get up off that chair until I say!". 

I was shocked!

What?  How could she not see that they forced those cookies down my mouth?  I started to object and try to explain but my mom wasn't having any of it.  So I sat down and pouted, stewing about the injustice of it all.

And just then my sisters opened the back door and made ugly faces and laughed at me for getting into trouble. 

Boy did that make me mad!  I stuck out my tongue, threw my thumbs in my ears and gave a great big "Grrrrr" back to them.  (Hey, I was a little kid, what else was I supposed to do?).

But at the exact moment I retaliated, my mother happened to turn around in her seat and see me making faces at my sisters.  And of course, I got into more trouble.

So you see, from that day on, I have never been able to eat a thin mint.  They are totally ruined for me.  I think it's some kind of PTSD that I'm dealing with. 

And while I've considered counseling, I've decided samoas are much cheaper :)