Hopefully you recognize the title of this week’s blog as just one of the memorable quotes uttered by possibly baseball’s most colorful character to ever tie up cleats—Yankee legend Yogi Berra. He passed away just last month at the ripe old age of 90, which lead to several tributes across all types of media, but the interesting thing is most of the pieces I read spoke more about his colorful words of wisdom than his athletic career, and for good reason! His “Yogi-isms”, little sayings that would just organically spring from his brain, are so simple, yet full of poetic elements that really make the receiver stop, think and appreciate what they’ve just experienced.
I was thinking of Yogi as I drove Kaitlyn to the Horizon Goodwill Store last week, as it literally was like deja vu all over again. We made the same trip last October to purchase donated clothing in order to create her Halloween costume, and she begged me to do so once again this year. It’s kind of becoming a father/daughter tradition, and I think that’s pretty cool. This time, however, she kept stating the phrase “Be Your Own Monster”, which I discovered was the nationwide tag line between Sony Picture’s “Hotel Transylvania 2” and Goodwill Industries®. As a writer and marketer, I have to admit, it works—and is a pretty cool concept to boot!
This week I decided to share the details of our shopping trip with the Horizon Goodwill Faithful, as well as throwing a few “Yogi-isms” in for good measure. Think you can spot all of them?
“You Can Observe A Lot By Just Watching”
Kaitlyn had her seatbelt unbuckled before I could even turn off the car! She literally dragged be through the front doors of our local Horizon Goodwill store, on a mission to Be Her Own Monster! Unlike last Halloween, she didn’t need any guidance from me as she had her own vision as to what would make up her costume. I stood back, watched, and, well, observed a lot! She’s growing up so fast, and that scares me more than any Halloween tale ever could! It seems the future ain’t what it used to be.
There were some other kids there as well, just about Katilyn’s age, who were obviously on the same quest to create the best costume possible. She shot me this glance that told me I was hovering, so I decided I would mosey about the store, keeping one eye on my daughter and the other out for any unexpected treasures.
“A Nickel Ain’t Worth A Dime Anymore”
As I always tend to do when visiting a Horizon Goodwill store, I browsed the media section. I’m always on the lookout for a good book, a DVD I haven’t seen before or a CD to add to my collection. Yes, I do still listen to compact discs. What can I say CD’s have deep depth compared to downloads! Checking out the prices on some of these items was pretty amazing. Some of the music I purchased just last year for $10.00 at a certain big box retailer were sitting right there, for a heck of a lot less! I think I have to disagree with Yogi, at least when it comes to Horizon Goodwill, your nickels go a lot further than they do at retail!
“It Gets Late Early Out There”
So she got her costume! I can’t tell you what it is yet, as I’m sworn to secrecy, but I have to admit, it’s pretty cool! We entered the car and I realized again how close we are to Halloween, I mean, it was only 7:30 pm and it was already dark out! Oh, well, I guess if the world was perfect, it wouldn’t be.
I looked in the rearview mirror to see my beautiful daughter smiling, satisfied that she found all the elements to make her perfect costume. She caught me watching her: “Daddy, Mommy told me I should be able to get everything I need for my Halloween costume at Goodwill for less than ten dollars. She was right!”
“Mommy’s always spot on,” I replied. “I guess I’ve got a smart wife.”
Oh, and in case you were counting, not including the title of this week’s blog, there are 8 “Yogi-isms”, one was used twice!