I have received many memorable gifts through the years: Christmas lights in my bedroom, the clothespin with glued on cracked marbles, the leather miniskirt (that was a long time ago!), the red wool sweater, silk from overseas, Swedish chocolates, kangaroo pajamas, a darling collection of elementary school pottery, and the $5 garage sale item.
I had lived in the neighborhood perhaps a year. I was still getting to know the others, feeling a bit like the new kid on the block. One day as I was taking a walk down the street a neighbor pulled in her driveway in front of me and said, "I have something for you." I was not sure what she meant, perhaps a piece of Tupperware from the last neighborhood gathering. Perhaps my kids' jackets, that would be more likely, since any plastic I would leave behind probably originated from the deli counter. In any case, I waited as she ran in her house and brought out a large colorful item.
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It was a book, titled America's Glorious Quilts. It was a huge coffee table book filled with colorful quilts and the history behind them. It was an older book in mint condition, even still wearing its crazy quilt dust jacket. Hawaiian quilts, Civil War quilts, Amish quilts...
She started to say that it was perhaps something I could not use, she was not sure. I should not feel obligated to take it, she said. I listened to her through my tears of joy, I heard her say she had found it at a garage sale and thought of me.
She said it was just $5.00, is it any good?
Any good? It is so good that almost 10 years later I still look at that book and drool over the colors, the history, the stories of the quilters. I am still so inspired by that book, that spontaneous gift.
It is the type of unexpected gift that wins your heart. It was not my birthday, it was not a holiday, it was just a day that I was taking a walk. Yet, that moment of presentation has a great deal of meaning for me today.
I felt much less like the new person, I was accepted and I had a friend who knew what I was about. I was touched by someone's thought.
Yes, Barb, it is good. Very very good. And thank you again.
The $5.00 find.
