Friday Gifts

I continued talking to mom about her engagement period to dad. "Back in those days," she said, "people didn't give big shower gifts or have a lot of money, so your dad and I decided we'd exchange small gifts every Friday while we were engaged-- to get ready for our first apartment."

"Do you remember dad's first Friday gift to you?" I asked.

"Yes! I was really upset and so was my mother. It was a HUGE ironing board-the biggest ironing board you ever saw in your life. When we finally did get married and move into our tiny apartment, I had to store it behind a door because it wouldn't fit anywhere else," she said.

I asked her what she got for dad and she said she bought him mostly clothing since he had nothing to wear when he came out of the Air Force. "One week I'd get him five pair of socks, another would be a dress shirt," she said. Her other gifts from him were an iron, toaster, set of towels and practical things. She loved the odds and ends of dishes, pots and pans best. "It was so much fun opening those gifts every Friday. We enjoyed it from November to June in 1951 every single week like a little Christmas," she told me.

I can't help thinking how spoiled we are today when I hear how much these mundane items thrilled her. It hit me how the years have passed like minutes and all those once treasured items are long gone, but still feel so special in her memory, not so much for what they were, but for how they would be used: in their new apartment, love nest, home.