[nercht12]

I started to understand pointers easily because I was told variables were mailboxes that held data/stuff (like numbers). A pointer was just another variable (mailbox) that held the address of a different mailbox.

There you have it. Pointers in two sentences.

The "indirect reference" yada yada is too technical, requiring your audience to already understand those terms. It also ends up leading to cyclical definitions if you try going too much into detail (because data structures can hold pointers).