GIVE AWAY VERSES TAKE AWAY

It was the early 50's and we were living on Kneale Avenue in Thief River Falls, MN in a new house with all the latest colors of the era. The walls in the living room and dining room with lime green, my bedroom was purple. The floor in the living room was salmon tile. As was common in that era, each room had different flooring. Greg's room was mustard. He had an oak bedroom suite.

Mother and Daddy had given up their bedroom set , (to Greg) several years before for a set of twin beds. As what happens in most families, that master bedroom set gets handed down. As children, I think we are okay with that.

There was a double bed, a dresser with a bench, and a chest of drawers. That is a lot of furniture for a child but he got all of it. Most beloved was the bench. I mean, how many of us have a vanity with a huge round mirror, let alone a bench!?

Families also did a lot of wheeling and dealing. A little history is necessary to get you to that point: When Mother was in the San in the late forties, my grandparents lived with us. The suite of furniture had already been moved to Greg's bedroom, and twin beds where placed in the master bed room and Greg slept in one; Daddy in the other when mother was gone.

So, you see, Grandma already had her eye on that bench because she had used it often in the 22 months they lived with us.

What sparked the idea that Grandma could have the bench is unknown. I am certain she asked and was given permission BUT the bench really was Greg's, (well, as much as children can claim furniture I think it mostly belongs to the house).

What I do remember is Grandma standing in the living room holding the bench when Greg came home and took it out of her hands and brought it back to his room. Some discussion followed, the bench stayed.

It was a case of give away and take back!

What prompted that? Well, this morning, I asked Tom to take a wicker basket down from a shelf to see if there were any 10" paper plates. When you order groceries and don't watch the numbers closely, you have a lot of little plates and few big ones. All that what in there was 1 ply napkins, (another mistake) and a set of Winnie the Pooh plates and napkins. When I was talking about the napkins, I was not talking about Winnie the Pooh stuff. But.....Tom thought I meant everything in the basket and since he is in that cleaning spirit, he took all and gave it to the neighbor.

Unlike Greg, I could not go to their house and say, "Give me those back"...Well, I didn't. The Pooh stuff was left over from out-of-pocket supplies I had purchased for a gig at the nursing home. I just thought they were cute and I suppose I kept them for no reason except they were not taking up a space for something else.

That is give away.

I hope you are smiling.

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