I have this awful step-grandmother. You know, like the one in the story… always crushing dreams, preparing bad food, and insisting that you come over for the holidays. Yes, she is not so nice, and I am fairly confident in saying that if I ever had to go live with her, I too would have had to have birds and mice help me make a dress to get out of that place!
My grandfather was no peach either, but he seemed tolerable as a kid who didn’t know any better. He always told me the same story when I saw him… the one about all the cars he has owned since the very first car ever came out. He was born in 1910, so that’s a lot of cars. He has since passed away, yet the step-grandmother lingers on.
I remember all the Christmases and Thanksgivings spent at their home. The home was filled with dark brown and burnt orange furniture. It was always dimly lit. And there were a million glass candy jars full of spiral hard candies, root beer barrels, and butterscotch. There was always food on the table in the kitchen. A huge spread of cheese, meat, bread, crackers, vegetables, and a jello mold of some sort. All of which was placed on the table early in the morning when she got up, and our family arriving at noon would never touch the food. The cheese would be slimy, the meat slightly green, the bread was hard enough to throw at someone, and lord knows what was in that jello mold! ick!
My mom, dad, sister, and me would all bring nice gifts for my grandfather and his wife in the spirit of giving at Christmas. And every year we would get the most unusual (and typically tacky) gifts from them. I should say from “her” because my grandfather was never involved in the shopping – in typical old-fashioned male form. My step-grandmother worked at Woolworth’s, as many of you will remember was the “K-Mart” of it’s time. They offered cheap stuff and even cheaper “discount bins”. Our gifts were blue light special all the way. One year each one of us got a plaid, flannel, button-up shirt, each in a different color. But the best year was the year that we all got matching, knitted scarves and hats in different fluorescent colors. I think I got hot orange! They were hideous! If she had made them with loving care, I might have not been so harsh about the color of them, but she actually spent money on them! ouch! Granted, not much money of course, each set most likely cost around $2 each. I guess that’s what living through the Depression did to some people.
I started talking with Brad about the awful gifts that we used to get from my step-grandmother and he told me some horror stories of his own. I was even present for one of them! His whole family buys him the worst gifts. Probably one of the funniest was when he was 20 years old, (he’s an artist), so his Aunt bought him the Michael’s “artist gift set” which included crayons, a few colored pencils, some cheap brushes for watercolor and one of those watercolor sets for kids. What a riot! At least she meant well.
So, my eyes were opened to the fact that you can get bad gifts from people who didn’t care enough to go out and get the appropriate item. And you can get bad gifts from people who love you dearly but just have no sense of how old you are!
I would love to hear, what are the worst gifts or the most unusual gifts that you have ever gotten? And was it given in a loving fashion or was it a “filler” gift?
