I grew up in the 70s and mostly can’t believe it whenever I think back to how I dressed for school or what a mess my hair, when I had hair, was when I combed it straight down with my pocket comb. Men wore aftershave like Aquavelva or Old Spice and those smells still trigger my mind whenever I smell someone wearing either. I wore the very coolest pearl-button western shirts and tall tube socks with stripes. Most of that seems like the stuff of horrors…or at least it did…
My parents and my grandparents, like everyone at the time, had dishes and decor that went along with the times…there were lots of mushrooms and owls and browns and oranges and otherwise funky patterns. We had spider plants in macrame hanging baskets and I always sported a kool-aid mustache. It was the 70s man…it’s what we did.
A year ago, my grandpa passed and my mom gave us a few treasures from my grandparents’ house. Like most older people do, they just stopped buying new decor items at some point. They finally decided, I suppose, that it isn’t worth trying to be trendy…For my grandparents, their stopping point was somewhere in the 1970s. So, one of the items that my mom gave me was a funky owl mug that my grandparents used with their daily coffee…not just any coffee mind you…Sanka! If that isn’t 1970s…
Anyhow, I have clear memories of them using that cup, sitting around their table talking to my brother and me about whatever. We didn’t drink coffee at the time but always enjoyed the warm cans of Red and White brand pop they kept under the kitchen sink. So, I have that cup and it is safely tucked away so I can see it but I don’t want to use it. Luckily for me, technology allowed me to browse the world’s markets (i.e. ebay) to find another owl mug. I found one (and only one) and bought it right away!
I received the mug the other day and have absolutely, positively enjoyed drinking coffee from it, thinking about my grandparents and the 70s and macrame and returnable bottles and western shirts. It’s funny and awesome how much one little coffee cup can bring up in my memory and it’s worth so much more than the $12 it cost me!
It’s funny that some people get all tied up in expensive family treasures when someone passes away. I’m like you—getting something simple/inexpensive that had great memories tied to it is FAR more valuable than some antique. Love your new-old cup. 🙂
If you ever find another, I’ll double your money… Or the water glasses with the birds on them.
I keep telling people that it is the simple things in life that count. Love your coffee cup story. And congtrats on the “new” cup score. However reading about the aftershaves surprised me. I had you figured for a “Hai Karate” or “Brut” kind of guy.
100% Like!
My wife collected owl mugs being that they were so popular–think she has 40+ but I don’t believe she has one like yours.
I always liked those mugs too.
Warren, you are a big old hunk of honey.
I completely understand this post. I have a 9×9 pink pyrex, my favorite thing of my Grandmother’s. I make the cornbread in it for the cornbread dressing at holidays. It’s my way of including her in the day.
When my Mom passed away, my cousin asked to have something of hers. I let her pick several things. When we were at her house in Florida last week she had a familiar crystal candy dish on her counter and she said it was Mom’s. She gets it too.
But even that cute mug wouldn’t make Sanka taste good!