My grandfather traveled a lot for his job. On average he was on the road at least three
weeks a month, home on weekends, and my grandmother didn't seem to mind it a
bit. In fact, I think she rather enjoyed
it. One summer, not long after I moved
into my very first apartment, my grandparents came to Idaho for a visit. My grandmother brought me a jar of soap.
I get a lot of my thriftiness from her and as I remember it was a
great big sauerkraut jar that she had pr0bably washed out and saved. She told me that very week, when my
grandfather came home from being on the road, he would give her all the little
bars of soap he had collected from the hotels he stayed in. In those days when you checked into the hotel
there would be two or three little bars of soap wrapped in paper with the hotel
logo on it. This was before hotels gave
away the little bottles of shower gel, lotion and shampoo.
When she handed me the jar I remember thinking it was kind of an
odd thing to give someone, but I also thought it was kind of quaint too. And so like her. The jar was filled with tons of little
rectangular soaps. Mostly white bars but
there were some yellow and pink ones too.
All different brands like Ivory, Dial, Zest and Safeguard. She told me it might come in handy now that I
was on my own.
Little did I know how right she was. That jar of soap went with me from house to
house as I moved, married, divorced, moved and moved again. And it really did come in handy. Every time money was tight, and it frequently
was, I'd dip into that jar and grab a bar of soap to put in the shower or set
by the bathroom sink.
Last week a friend of mine sent me home with a basket of hotel
soaps and shampoos that she had collected last year while she and her husband
traveled. It was fun for me and the
girls to go through and take a few things, but the one thing I decided I really
wanted was all those little bars of soap.
I had put a jar in the donate box last month because I had hung
onto it for well over a year and hadn't come up with a use for it. Then I thought - Hey!
I unwrapped all those little bars of soap and filled it up while
telling my girls about the one my grandmother had given me so many, many years
ago. Now, once again, I have a jar of
soap in the house.
Because you never know. It
just might come in handy.
How very sweet, What a wonderful memory from your grandma. I know she would be so happy that you are being frugal and remembering her gift to you.
ReplyDeleteYou are probably right. :)
DeleteNice tribute to your grandmother!
ReplyDeleteAw, thank you Anne.
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