~I ONLY HAD A QUARTER~

Each year on Mother's Day, I always remember a year that means a lot to me. I found out how much it meant to my mom also.  It was 1957, I was eleven years old.  I had a quarter.  In those days you could buy a few things that were nice for a quarter but I wanted something that my mom could really use.  So I went shopping.
I found what I was looking for, a potato peeler.  You see, my mom used to WASTE so much on a potato peeling it with a knife, and she would comment on how much she wasted but she could never skin that potato close to the surface of the skin.

I bought that potato peeler.  I went home and wrapped it in tissue paper.  It was so shiny!  I had several boxes I found in the house and I kept putting the peeler in bigger boxes until the finished project was in a box bigger than a sweater box.  I wrapped it and made a ribbon.
Mother's Day morning I handed it to mom while her and dad were having coffee.  She started unwrapping it.  Giggling as she came to box after box...and finally getting to the little one that held the potato peeler.  You'd have thought it was  a plane ticket to Hawaii!  And boy was I proud as I stood there, knowing it was something she could use and save some potatoes!

Mom died in '82.  Her potato peeler sits in my drawer and has been used hundreds of times in these past 20 years by me.  And believe it or not, it's never had to be sharpened and it STILL works great.  Many have seen it and asked where I got it and I always tell them, "A long time ago."  But there isn't a day goes by that I don't use that peeler and think of my mom.  Always remembering the day I got it, how much I paid for it, and how many years she used it and now........how many years I've used it.

It's the best quarter I ever spent in my life.....and it's something I hope to one day pass on to my daughter.   With my luck, she'll use instant potatoes and not NEED a peeler!  LOL

 

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