You’re eight years old and spending two summer weeks with your mother and sister in Atlantic City.  Your father drives ‘down the shore’ from Philadelphia on weekends.  

You are in an ice cream parlor and craving a banana split.  It is the Brigadoon of your young life.  You can’t decide.  Should you spend all your money?  Or would it be more prudent to just get an ice cream cone?  Agony drips from you.  

The owner sees your dilemma.  She is cleaning parfait glasses.  You are frozen.  She is kind and gives you two dollars. This makes up the cost difference between an ice cream cone and the banana split.

You make a decision that you still regret, fifty six years later.  You pocket the two dollars and buy an ice cream cone.