I can remember that first purse......

I remember when my mom gave me an old purse of hers......I stood in front of the Mayflower boat in Plymouth, NH with the family, proudly displaying my purse....at the age of 6.  That started the love of purses, I'm sure.  As for the clothes......when growing up, mom made all of our clothes.  We had the token matching outfits - my middle sister Joanna and I usually had the same outfit, but my five year older Nina had something a bit different - "more mature".  None the less, I loved it when people would buy me a dress from the store - or in those rare occasions when we went to the store and bought clothes......that was the best.  I look back on those days and think I was crazy - my mom was so talented making clothes - we would spend hours looking at pattern books, fabric and then she'd create an outfit that was unique and personal - and I didn't like it!  Oh, I wish I could take that all back now.  (Especially since mom is now gone and I miss her so much - I hope she knows how fondly I look back on those times and appreciate what she did for us!!)
As for shoes.....well, come on, who doesn't love shoes?  We can gain weight and our shoes will always fit us!!  You can get flats - or heels - casual or dressy!  There are too many choices!!  And colors....well, I'm going a bit overboard now.  So, there is the love of shoes.
So that was the start of the "love affair".  Now, my reasoning as to why I started purchasing so much.  As far back as I can remember - my family shopped for fun.  When we moved to Florida from Washington DC, the area lacked the traditional malls like we were used to in the Nation's capital.  So, each year before school started, we flew back to visit relatives and went back to school shopping.  And when my parent's opened their restaurant in Kissimmee, Florida, they worked long hours during the week.  So, over the weekend, my dad would take us to Tampa - we drove the 1 1/2 away to "hit the malls"!  I remember searching and searching for something to buy, but never finding anything.  My mom would say, "decide or you get nothing!"  I would pick just anything, just to have a purchase.  So began my "shopping isn't shopping if you don't have bags" theory.
Over the years, I shopped and shopped.  My freshman year in college - my first year away from home on on my own spending time, I shopped all the time.  I spent all my free time at the mall.  It was reflective in the amount of money I went through. 
I also perfected the "finding the most perfect gift" for people - trying to find what I thought would be the best gift for everyone on my list -birthday list, Christmas list - whatever list it was - I would find the perfect gift for them!  It brought me a tremendous amount of joy to notice if someone needed something and finding it for them and giving it to them as a gift!
It made me feel good to that, but I always got in trouble when I had to face the bills.  That, not such a good feeling.  That feeling would come back a lot.