There they were.. in all their blue box glory. An earnest blue. The color of the sky just before night takes over. A familiar bright streak of color splashed across each box indicating size. Purple for slim, yellow for "Regular", green for "Super-Absorbent" and orange for "your vagina is so big we are laughing our asses off after you purchase these".

I stopped scraping along the sidewalk in my uncomfortanble new shoes in order to take a longer gander at this unusual window display. Tampons? The window inhabits the entire first floor of the pharmacy on the corner. Usually I'm not looking in the window so much as at my reflection.

I suffer from the intense desire to check myself out in every mirror or window I shuffle past. You know.. does my butt look big in these? Does my hair still look the way it did when I left the house? Do I have something in my teeth? What do I look like when I walk? How is my posture? You know, the usual thoughts that engage my brain 80 percent of the time.

On this particular day I had bypassed the butt evaluation and was enjoying the way the hem of my jeans lovingly kissed the luscious tops of my beautiful new leather shoes. Then I looked through the glorious reflection of pant/shoe marriage.

Somone had carefully stacked boxes of Tampons into a crafty pyramid... and then, as a stylish exclamation point, had artfully sprinkled the actual tampons around the period pyramid. An artistic flourish that would perhaps lure me into the store in desperate search of the fantastic tampons arrayed in the window!

I stood, looking at the tampons in wonderment, trying to guess at the thought process that would prompt one to create a tampon display. Was it an ironic display? In an increasingly sarcastic society, where everything from human feces to carefully arranged garbage can and is called art I thought perhaps there was a deeper meaning to the tampon display that I was missing on first perusal.

But no. The display next to the tampons included a variety of vitamins and herbs for the health conscious. Now THAT, I can understand. Trying to inform the folks that you carry a particular item that not everyone stocks is a perfectly acceptible reason to display things. Or to create a display that appeals to the senses.. decadent chocolates, beautiful clothing, sparkling diamonds.. all of these are acceptible display items.. But TAMPONS? They need to put them in the window? As with toothpase and toiletpaper, is it not safe to assume a drug store or pharmacy would carry this particular item?

In my head, I articulated the sales pitch behind the tampon display.. Step right up! Come on inside ladies.. getcher tampons here! We've got slim, we've got regular, we've got a little something for the big gals! Tampons sold here!

So what's next? Douche?
"Can I help you miss?"
"Yes sir, I'd like the douche there in the window. The Summer's Eve so beautifully arranged there in the display. Yes, that's the one. I was walking by on my way to lunch when I saw the wonderful display and simply couldn't resist!"