GIFT-GIVING IN HARD TIMES
Merry
Christmas! – I hope the suit protector will fulfill its duty all right and that
your present laundry bag is in the last stages of dilapidation, or at least so
near it that being a self-respecting laundry bag, it will be glad to wash
itself out of the picture! Remember the Christmas that Myrtle and I got dress
protectors and we couldn’t any of us figure out what they were and I finally
pulled one over my head? – Shirley to Vance, 1932
The
gift-giving of yesteryear was different from today. Money was scarce, and so
were goods. The point was not to satisfy the longing of the recipient but to think
of something that he/she could use. Many gifts were handmade.
Ina didn’t have much money to spend, so her gifts were homemade or perhaps shared from her storehouse of goods. Once she sent a jar of her strawberry preserves to Earle and his wife Bernice, knowing that they didn’t make any for themselves that year. Grandson Stanley was given a pen that was a “premium” provided with the purchase of grain or feed. One year they sent books – “new, but we had read them,” she said. And she tells of making small cushions stuffed with dried rose petals and a quilt top.
And
one year Shirley made dress protectors for all the women in the family and what
she called a “suit protector” for Vance. Dress protectors were fastened
under the arms to prevent perspiration stains on one’s clothes. In the days
before effective anti-perspirants, dress protectors were important.
Well, you get the idea. However, I notice that Ina did go out of her way to provide store-bought gifts for Shirley – for example, a diary, a pair of pajamas, a box of stationery, stockings, and leather-faced gloves. KW
2 comments:
Oh, I remember those! Mom bought me "dress shields" to wear with my wool sweaters. Fortunately, anti-perspirants came out soon after and I only had to use them a few times. I hated them! We really have come a long way!!
Yes, we don't talk about it today, but perspiration would leave underarm stains. I remember when Mother discovered Dial soap in 1965. She was impressed.
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