I have very strong recollections of buying "back to school" clothes one year when I was a boy. We were shopping in an old Belk Gallant store in Decatur. I think I was about 7 or 8. Mama and Daddy were there with me and I had tried on clothes. I'm pretty sure I was growing a bit and had grown out of most of my clothes, but I can't remember that part. We had bought jeans and shirts, t shirts and underwear. I was thrilled with the clothes. I wore a lot of hand me downs from my cousins, but this was all new stuff. I remember it being piled on the counter and the clerk beginning to ring it up on the cash register. I'm really clear on the next part and I think this is why I remember this image so strongly. The total came up to $26 and change, and I was horror struck. I knew that we didn't have that kind of money and I immediately grabbed some of the pairs of jeans to go put them back in the stacks. What was I thinking? Thinking that I could buy all those clothes? But my mother stopped me and told me it was all right. And my dad took out money from his wallet and paid that enormous bill. I was shaken by the cost.