The Conservative Cave
The Bar => The Lounge => Topic started by: franksolich on December 18, 2009, 07:28:00 PM
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It's Friday night, it's slow because people are out in real life doing real things.
But one must have a Friday night thread in the Lounge.
We've received Christmas presents all our lives, and I'm sure everybody at times has gotten unusual gifts like pet rocks or Geraldine Ferraro's autobiography and somesuch, but how about unusual gifts that ended up being truly appreciated?
A few years ago, a friend of mine was in an antique store in London, wishing to find something unusual for me. He was shown a bush helmet, obviously of British manufacture and obviously pretty old. The proprietor there assured him it was an unusual antique, having been used by Lord Baring when governor of British East Africa during the 1950s.
The friend was dubious about the story, but as it wasn't premiumly-priced for its historic connections, bought it anyway, thinking I would find it a good curiosity.
I not only found it unusual, but useful.
Out here in the Sandhills of Nebraska, cowboy hats are the usual headgear.
But there's a problem with cowboy hats; they look good only on certain people.
On everybody else, they just look ridiculous.
There's a certain manner, or attitude, or style, to wearing a hat.
Oddly, my father, who was born and raised in Pennsylvania and then spent many of his years in New York City, upon coming to Nebraska, always looked like the real article, wearing a cowboy hat, whereas I, one of his sons, born and raised in Nebraska, simply looked stupid wearing a cowboy hat.
Not quite as stupid as Chief S itting Bull, the bird-smacking stoned red-faced primitive, wearing a cowboy hat, but almost as stupid.
There's a certain manner, or attitude, or style, to wearing a hat well.
Upon unwrapping this present, I placed the bush helmet on my head.
"Man, that is s-o-o-o-o-o-o you," the friend said; "you were born to wear that."
Because of facial and neck skin supersensitive to the sun, I took to wearing the bush helmet while roaming around the sun-drenched Sandhills; later on, I added khaki shirts and shorts similar with those worn by ANZAC troops of the first world war.
Because I tend to be aloof and distant and formal even in casual situations (due solely to being deaf, not due to snobbishness), and because the Sandhills very much resemble, with a few significant exceptions, the highlands of former British East Africa, I feel utterly natural and eminently comfortable in this attire.
Thanks to a friend who bought me something he thought I would just display on top of a bookcase or something.
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While I was reading Frank's story and I couldn't stop picturing Miss Jane Hathaway in her birdwatching outfit. :innocent:
I don't have a Christmas "good gift" tale. If I did, it would probably be about cash.
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I have a few sentimental gifts, that will always have a place in my heart, but unusual, most appreciated....
I have a myriad of bar glass, collected from my travels. Not shot glasses, but beer glasses. From all over Europe, and the US. The majority of which were pilfered leaving a bar, so there is that memory as well.
My friends teased me that I could serve a keg with all my glassware. When my boyfriend and I shared our first Christmas, he was a brewer, and got a case of plain old pint glasses from his distributor for me, for Christmas. I was offended by his lack of originality, because he knew of my collection. He told me it was to replace my cherished glasses, so I could keep them in good condition. He couldn't have been more practical if he tried.
And ya know what? I use those glasses daily, several have been broken. But they could have been my irreplaceable ones...
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A custom made fishing rod and reel.
M had one made for me several years ago, cut the blank (the plain rod) himself. He hates green, yet had the wraps that hold the eyes for the line....done in teal green and gold. It's even personalized for me...without my last name ( :whatever: ).
When he gave it to me...I cried.
Not because he gave me a fishing rod....but because he gave me a gift that meant a lot to him. He taught me to fish, it's one of his most favorite things to do, and he wanted me to have my own when we went fishing together.
If you knew me personally ..... you would understand why my kids ...upon seeing my reaction, asked...where is our mom and what did you do with her? :-)
Over the years....he has given me some beautiful jewelry...but nothing has meant as much to me as my fishing pole.
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Dad purchased me a small wooden box. About 2"x2"x2". The lid is a 3-d carved gnomb head/face.
I opened it, gave him a WTF? look and his response was: "When I saw it, I thought of you."
That was initially met with another WTF?... but now it's one of my favorite items.
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My mother sent me a toy 30 years after she had originally given it to me for Christmas. It was "Flame," Jane West's horse. I was a horse crazy little girl when I first got it, and opening the box at age 38 brought back memories of the hours I spent daydreaming with that toy.
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Hmmmm...probably the Easy Bake oven...I loved that thing... :-)
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Hmmmm...probably the Easy Bake oven...I loved that thing... :-)
:lmao:
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Mine was a red scrooch gun. It shot darts that had a suction cup and had a built in flashlight for shooting in the dark. This was in 1962.
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It was 2007 and we had just put a ceiling fan above the bed.
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My most appreciated Christmas gift came from God many many years ago. He gave me His Son. I'm still in awe.
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My mother sent me a toy 30 years after she had originally given it to me for Christmas. It was "Flame," Jane West's horse. I was a horse crazy little girl when I first got it, and opening the box at age 38 brought back memories of the hours I spent daydreaming with that toy.
How neat!
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My most appreciated Christmas gift came from God many many years ago. He gave me His Son. I'm still in awe.
Absolutely!
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I've posted about this before, most likely at CU, but I like this story so I'll share it again here.
About 10 years ago, I was on vacation with the former Mrs. Wiggum, staying with my in-laws in Door County, Wisconsin. For those who have never been, it's a big summer destination for those in Wisconsin & Chicago. There are a lot of antique shops & places like that. I keep a good-sized collection of baseball books, and stumbled upon an original Baseball Encyclopedia (circa 1950) at a used bookstore while shopping with my father-in-law. Given that I already had plenty of more recent & updated baseball reference books and that price was something like $50, I decided to pass on purchasing it.
That Christmas, I received that exact book as a gift from my father-in-law. I guess he went back to the store later that same day and bought it for me. Even though I never see the former in-laws any more, I still treasure that gift and thought it was incredibly kind and thoughtful.
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That Christmas, I received that exact book as a gift from my father-in-law. I guess he went back to the store later that same day and bought it for me. Even though I never see the former in-laws any more, I still treasure that gift and thought it was incredibly kind and thoughtful.
That is thoughtful. That is a good way to find a gift grown-up to grown-up isn't it? Find something that matches their personality.