“Wear the pearls, use the good silver, don’t wait for a rainy day.”
Words my mother said as she cruised the displayed wedding gifts at our reception. We married in the living room of my parents’ home, with the reception in the dining room, where a sliding patio door splayed guests out-of-doors to sip non-alcoholic punch and eat strawberry shortcake.
Wisdom from a generation whose young adult lives were shaped, not by the Great Depression, but by deprivations and shortages during WW2.
Those who saved for a rainy day, scrimping, getting-by, and making-do. Carefully flattening once-used aluminum foil (called tin foil) to place on another casserole, timed to be ready when the man of the house walked in the door, work-weary and expectant of a meal.
Such was the pact of the Greatest Generation, the parents that raised the fun-loving Boomers with the help of Dr. Spock. Boomer women who took a look around and noticed that all animals were equal, but some were more…and fought for equality in many arenas. Like me.
For example, when I graduated from college, I could get a credit card in my own name…women prior to 1973 could not. Yikes! Too many commonplace rights were non-existent in my young adult days. I’ve tried to relate such to my nieces a time or two, but was met by a shrug and significant eye roll before their attention drifted away. I’ve acclimated to the slight flinch that indicated that a text arrived in the cell phone held like a body part in their hand. Sigh.
So, when my husband and I received an emergency alert via cell phone during California’s current fire-ravaged times, I dug into my drawer and retrieved the gold earrings I prize. I inserted them into my pierced earlobes – as if that would help me pack a small roller bag to evacuate. Everything I might need for several days…or the rest of my life.
I wear them daily. Live in the moment. Believe in today. Why wait?
Wear the pearls, use the good silver – and the china, too.
Wisdom from my mother, who never spent money on gold earrings…
But I have her pearls. 🙂
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