A Special Gift …

They lived in a Pennsylvania farmhouse.

All their married lives, they lived in farmhouses, never owning one. They were tenant farmers renting a house and land to farm. To subsidize life with 5 children, they performed other skills like butchering pigs and cattle, baking, selling farm products.

They worked hard, endlessly. As the children aged, I mean by 5-years-old; tasks to perform were allocated as well. Plowing horses needed fed, cows needed milked, water needed carried from the well to the house and barn, produce needed preserved, babies needed watched, cooking for the clan was daily and baking essential. You ate “in season”: whatever was growing was dinner. They kept canned and preserved foods for the “non-growing” season. Little was discarded and food on the table cherished.

We might describe them as “poor” today, but they would never have considered that title! Never! They and the “Good Lord above” provided for their needs!

When giving up their farming career, they bought a house of their own. Most children were already married. This small farmhouse was home for their final years. Don’t misunderstand: they never stopped working. Pappy worked at a feed mill. They had a fruitful garden, chickens, rabbits raised for the table. Even in winter, they shelled nuts for sale.

I recall a table full of pecans, black walnuts, etc. crackers and picks. When it was too cold for outdoor productivity, they sat at the kitchen table by the wood-burning cooking stove, picking and bagging nuts. If you visited, you joined in the cracking and picking. Even back then, nuts were pricey. Age did not deter their entrepreneurial mindset.

I’m speaking of my paternal grandparents: Lynn and Nettie.
Grandma and Pappy to me.

They tapped out at 18 grandchildren. Their immediate clan numbered 30. I’ve lost count on today’s numbers!

Financial prosperity was not their story: LOVE was!

They loved all of us equally! I always felt welcomed and cherished.

Easter had dyed eggs and hunts. Christmas welcomed so many baked goodies and ribbon candy. Always, pretzels and sharp cheese. (Good Germans!)

Every Christmas when we visited, Pappy would place in our palms a small hand-wrapped gift. I can picture him and Grandma sitting at the table wrapping these small circular presents.

Have you ever tried to wrap a round gift?
They had a lot of practice!

Even though we knew what it was from every prior year, we’d celebrate; they still wrapped them in love, I might add!

We were as happy as you can imagine at this small display of affection! It might have been small, but it wasn’t worthless! It was weighty and held value. We knew it!!

For twenty-some years of my life, my grandparents gave me and all their grandchildren a Silver Dollar for Christmas!

I knew it was valuable because when we got home, we put them directly in Dad’s safe. We each had a designated envelope with our name on it for this specific purpose. Most years, we took our envelope out, counting and looking at our collections. I had a few that were still wrapped!

I did some research and found out 18 silver dollars in that time would have been equal to spending $10.39 per child in today’s economy. That means my grandparents spent the equivalent of $187.02 on our gifts. I’m sure that was quite a chunk of their monthly budget!

My Aunt worked at a bank and I recall hearing that when a Silver Dollar would come through the bank, she would save it for my grandfather to purchase so he would have enough by the end of the year. I think a few years he had a hard time getting enough, so we received Kennedy fifty-cent pieces.

Several years ago, my sister gave me the idea of making one into a necklace! I loved the thought. I made one for all the ladies in my immediate family with the oldest coins I possessed. All of them were dated in the 1920s, mine being 1922. The rest of my silver dollars are still in my possession. I saw one like mine, but not as old, for sale on Amazon for $50. I saw prices beyond that too!

It’s not their monetary worth … seeing my Silver Dollars hold tremendous weight and value: love, affection, kindness, generosity and importance.

It may look like a necklace, a piece of jewelry. It is so much more… having it sit close to my heart floods me with love and memories.

The history and story it holds are more precious than any jewel or amount of gold and silver.

It is a “love-gift” from those I hold dear, passed on, but living still in my heart and memory!!

Do you have a “love-gift memory?”

Or hope to instill one with a gift you’ve purchased?

Warm our hearts by sharing!

Grateful for Generational Love,