a pink lady remington in the snow

The year was somewhere in the 1960s.  I was about 14 and my sister Barbara was 18.  My little brother was 11.   Barb was a senior in high school and had a job.  I also had a job at a restaurant making a whopping .75 per hour.  It was Christmas time and my sister and I had conspired to help my parents and have a nice Christmas for my brother.  My dad had been in a bad accident so money was scarce that year.  Barb and I had saved our money and were planning to surprise our parents by going to a really big grocery store and buying lots of food.  Between us, we had about $60.

 In my small town, there wasn’t a grocery store that we could really go crazy in.  If we had spent $60.00 in Erickson’s groceries, it would have depleted the store.  So on Christmas Eve, we drove to the biggest store we knew of in Hurley, WI about an hour away – the Super Value.  We went into the store feeling like we were rich.  Actually $60.00 was a lot of money 40 some years ago.  We went up and down the aisles throwing stuff in our cart – things that we didn’t ordinarily get like a lot of soda and potato chips and ice cream.  We also got a ham and a turkey too.   We pretty much filled up the entire back seat of Barbara’s orange VW bug as well as the small trunk.

My mom was very happy that we had spent our money this way and we felt good about helping her.  It was enough of a Christmas present for me and for my parents.  I did not know that my big sister had other things in mind.  She actually had a little more money put aside and purchased a bunch of presents for my brother and I – clothes and records for me (LPs we called them but today these LPs are known as vinyl and not many people have turntables to play them on).  I remember getting Beatle albums and red stretch pants.  My brother got clothes and games.  My sister had not gotten anything for herself and to this day, this is the way she is – she would give the shirt off her back to anyone she thought needed it more than she.

Me in my red stretch pants and Barb

  

I was happy with all of the things I had received.  My sister seemed to feel like I did not have enough and that something was missing, but she did not say what it was.  I found out though, when we got dressed and got our sleds out to go to our favorite sledding hill.  Lying in the snow by her car was a pink object and when I got closer I noticed it was a pink Lady Remington electric shaver.  My sister had dropped it when she got the gifts out of the car on Christmas Eve.  She knew I wanted one of these as my mom finally let me start shaving my legs (after much discussion and her warnings that it would grow back black).   I was already thrilled with the things my sister had gotten for me but that pretty pink razor in the snow made me realize just how good my sister is and how she went out of her way to make things nice for us.   I don’t think she got anything that year – or maybe she got more than the rest of us.

  

I think of this Christmas as one of my best memories.  It isn’t the ones where my dad was working and we got a lot of stuff.  It was the fun of conspiring with my sister to help my parents and the surprise of my sister conspiring to make Christmas nice for my brother and me.  I think of this when I run by Smith's Marketplace parking lot and smell the Christmas trees and I see the cars packed in the parking lot and people rushing about and not looking at all happy.  I think of it whenever I buy something because I feel as though I have to and not because I want to. 

Every year I vow to slow down a bit at Christmas and to do something to surprise someone who is expecting nothing from me – someone who might need something rather than want something.    Maybe this Christmas will be the one. For sure it will be next year when I won't be preoccupied with work. 

  

A few years ago my sister found me a Pink Lady Remington on EBAY - very similar to the one she bought me so long ago.  I take it out and look at it and remember that Christmas when it seemed like we didn't have much but we had everything we needed.  And then some.