One Christmas about 10 years ago, the care package from mom contained some gifts that led me to believe she had finally gotten a clue. The two best gifts were:
[list=1][li]A hardbound copy of “Chuck Amuck”, the biography of Chuck Jones, director of many Warner Brothers classics, amongst others;[/li]
[li]An eraser stick.[/list=1][/li]
Go ahead and laugh if you will, but that second item was a fabulous gift for me. I used to draw aircraft that never existed, using graph paper, french curves, and straight edges. If I made an eror, it was very difficult to erase it without damaging the paper, and the eraser stick was made of some white, rubbery compound that dug out the graphite but left the paper intact.
I was so confident that mom had finally figured out how to pick gifts for me that when my birthday rolled around in June, I did not purchase “Bugs Bunny: Fifty Years and Only One Gray Hare”. I knew my mom would know that I’d like it and would get it for me.
Unfortunately, no. It seems that “Chuck Amuck” had been a coincidence. By the time I found out that I wasn’t getting the Bugs Bunny book for my birthday, I could not find it anywhere for love nor money. Maybe some day I’ll find it in a used book store.
How many others got the “perfect” gift at one time in their life (or it’s opposite, the perfectly *awful gift)?
I’ve received some really great gifts, but I’d have to say that the best (Christmas gift) was definitely the “Gift of Shopping” that my husband gave me a few years ago.
I’m a total girl, OK? I love to go shopping. One Christmas he gave me quite a substantial amount of money in gift certificates for various favorite stores. Whadda guy.
“Wednesday the 15th - Chris made one of her rare good points today.” Guanolad
She gave me complete sets of SWAMP THING and HOWARD THE DUCK. (To be accurate, she completed my sets, but I only had a couple of Howards).
Now you younger folk may not truly appreciate this. At the time, SWAMP THING and HOWARD were considered two of the best comic books of all time. They still hold up pretty damn well. People tend to think of Howard in connection with that horrible movie they made, but the comics were some of the best Marvel ever produced. The original SWAMP THING was also overshadowed by the movie and TV series, as well as Alan Moore’s version, but it still is terrific.
It was a truly great gift.
“East is east and west is west and if you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does.” – Marx
I can’t really remember getting a knock down floor me killer gift (although my sister has zinged me w/a few good books - turned me on to John Keegan).
The question did give me pause to remember the only time in my life I was ever able to give my mother a truly meaningful gift. In 1982 she and I both got our first computers (TI 99/4A’s) and I noticed, as I crawled home from the bars and passed her townhouse, the dim bluish-grey glow coming from the extra bedroom at 2:30 AM. I new what was up. After untold years of cologne and ties for Dad and apron upon apron for Mom - I knew! And I did it! I CHANGED HER LIFE with the joystick that allowed her to finally, ultimately rout the Space Invaders!
Best gift ever recieved- my husband (for our first anniversary) got me a gorgeous diamond anniversary band. When I explained that you usually get those for later anniversarys (10 or 20 years) he said that he loved me and just really wanted me to have it.
Everyone- “Awwwwwww”
Best I ever gave: When my fellow geek husband and I were dating and really poor (really, really poor) I bought him $250 worth of RAM for his computer (about 4 meg at the time). He almost cried he was so touched! He still tells people about it today.
Once I also saved up my lunch money for several months to surprise my husband with James Taylor tickets (during the same poor period). He was utterly shocked and we had a fabulous time. JT is his favorite
Zette
Love is like popsicles…you get too much you get too high.
One of the absolute best gifts I have ever received came from my younger brother. When he first moved to Dallas, he slept on my living room floor for a couple of months. To say thank you when he moved out (and he was going out of town on work for a little while), he lent me the denim jacket he knows that I eternally lust for so I could wear it while he was gone. In the inside pocket was a ticket to Cirque du Soleil. He could only afford the one. New job, new city, new apartment . . . I don’t know how he figured out how much I wanted to see it or saved up the money. One of these days, I’m gonna get him back.
The coolest gift I ever got was from my husband. A HOT AIR BALLOON RIDE! It was awsome! Even though we kind of crashed at the end. It is the most peaceful feeling you’ll ever experience.
Mrs. Chef and I were going through a tight financial patch on our anniversary and had agreed that instead of buying each other gifts, we would put the money toward a new entertainment center. Well, I drove home on our anniversary and pulled up to the garage to discover that she’d put a big “Happy Anniversary” sign on the garage door. Awwww, I thought. Then I went inside to discover that she’d plastered every inch of the house with hearts she’d cut out of red paper, each emblazoned with a reason she loves me. (examples: taped to the TV was one that said, “I love you because you let me hold the remote control”; taped to the computer was, “I love you because you believe I can learn to use this thing.”) Everywhere. Over a hundred of them. I was so touched! Mrs. Chef is pretty great.
The best gift I have ever gotten for x-mas, that’s a tough one, i’d have to go with the diamond stud earrings my SO got for me last year. They are really gorgeous and i never take them out.
I prefer and really treasure those gifts you get for no reason at all, though. One of those was a 6 day cruise from Manhattan to Bermuda plus a $5000 shopping spree 2 weeks before to buy essential cruise stuff. Got that from the ex for being in the hospital with a kidney infection for 2 weeks. Not bad for a kidney infection.
Two other of those “get for no real reason gifts” that I still have and really treasure are two little tin and plastic rings- the kind you get from a gumball machine or the like. My boys had cleaning appts at the dentist, and afterwards they let the kids pick from a box of little toy trinkets. Well my boys decided to each get me a ring instead of getting something for themselves. I lost it. I was so happy I cried. Then i took them to the toystore and spent $20 a piece. They know how to play me. Charming little devils they are.
so you found a girl who thinks really deep thoughts. what’s so amazing about really deep thoughts? Tori Amos
I was 19 in 1970 and the hottest guy I ever met in my entire life sold his leather jacket to buy us tickets to a Led Zeppelin concert. We had to walk home five miles afterwards from downtown.
