Hand-Me-Downs and Hidden Treasures

Living in the poor college town that we do, means we see a lot of hand-me-downs.  Dr. O and I have purchased exactly one piece of furniture in our seven years of marriage.  My whole three bedroom condo is filled with 2nd hand furniture, and we have a lot of furniture…for a three bedroom condo.  Yard sales are rampant, usually filled with children’s clothes dating back to the prehistoric era.  Everyone holds onto everything because even if you don’t need it, there will probably be a poor university student down the road who might.  Our local thrift store no longer accepts donations of furniture because by the time the couch makes it to the furniture store it has been used by five different families whose children have managed to break it and spoil it; then it has passed into the dorms where it has changed apartments exactly 42 times.  It becomes lower and lower to the ground as the legs give way, the upholstery becomes a muddy grayish color, it has been pieced together with duck tape, and because the springs are all entirely uncovered and there is no longer any possible spot to place ones behind…. the couch gets dragged to the thrift store.  Because this happens so often in our smallish town….no more furniture donations! 

This particular hand-me-down has a pretty good story.  My friend (who has two little girls) went to her husband’s great-aunt’s home (really), sometime this fall.  The weather was cold and the girls didn’t have jackets.  Mrs. Great Aunt happened to have two jackets in her closet, left there by some other family member.  Mrs. Great Aunt, had kept the jackets for years knowing that someday they would come in handy (which they did).  My friend passed the jackets on to me because they are made for boys.  Giovanni fell in love with this jacket almost right away.  Red happens to be his favorite color but I think he likes it because I made a grimace when I first saw it.  Understanding the history of our town I am sure this jacket is at least as old as I am.  Denim lasts forever you know. 

Anyway as we were walking home from school the other day, my four year old decided to really break in his “new” jacket by filling the pockets with acorns.  Inside the left pocket however we discovered a new treasure, some plastic pilot’s wings with a “Super N” as Gio calls it. 

Pretty cool when you are only four years old.   Now not only do we have “new” favorite jacket but we have a “new” favorite toy as well.  

Thanks a lot.