01-01-2013, 12:24 PM
Three gifts which immediately popped into my mind when I read the title of this thread:
School gifts -
You can imagine that a teacher gets a wide range of gifts from really nice to junk. One that I fondly recall was a "used" pair of earrings that had posts that had turned green and had gunk all over them - so nasty. The other was a very tiny bottle of perfume that had about l/4th inch left in the bottom. These two gifts really touched me since the givers were extremely poor but didn't want to forget me at Christmas. Times like that were when I had to be a really good actress and ooh and ahh over them. Later when the earring gift-giver asked me why I never wore them to school, I informed him that they were too beautiful and that I only wore them when I really dressed up for special occasions. Satisfied him completely.
Family gift -
Remember it only because I thought it was so funny. My husband's sister who is extremely well-off but so very cheap gave my husband an electric comb which when used would straighten curly hair. When my husband opened it, her 11 year-old son said, "Mom, why did you give that to Uncle ________? You know it doesn't work since you gave it to me and we tried it."
School gifts -
You can imagine that a teacher gets a wide range of gifts from really nice to junk. One that I fondly recall was a "used" pair of earrings that had posts that had turned green and had gunk all over them - so nasty. The other was a very tiny bottle of perfume that had about l/4th inch left in the bottom. These two gifts really touched me since the givers were extremely poor but didn't want to forget me at Christmas. Times like that were when I had to be a really good actress and ooh and ahh over them. Later when the earring gift-giver asked me why I never wore them to school, I informed him that they were too beautiful and that I only wore them when I really dressed up for special occasions. Satisfied him completely.
Family gift -
Remember it only because I thought it was so funny. My husband's sister who is extremely well-off but so very cheap gave my husband an electric comb which when used would straighten curly hair. When my husband opened it, her 11 year-old son said, "Mom, why did you give that to Uncle ________? You know it doesn't work since you gave it to me and we tried it."