Buying the Playbill of the Broadway show where my parents met was the most wonderful purchase that I have made. What souvenir of your parents' life would you kill to have?

-- Kymm Zuckert (hedgehog@hedgehog.net), October 04, 2000

Answers

My father's clerical garb.

-- Tynan (ty@power-lines.com), October 04, 2000.

Hey Kymm - That is so, so wonderful. What a great find! I don't think I have anything that's missing from my folks that I'd want, they are such inveterate packrats.

Oh wait - there is something from my GRANDMOTHER's life I'd love to have... she went to the World's Fair in 1933 (?), and I'd love to have some pictures of her there, and any flyers of the attractions. I'm such a huge sci-fi buff, I'm jealous that she got to go to something so cool... -Jenn

-- Jennifer Wells (jennifer@hygirls.com), October 04, 2000.

i wish i knew more stories from my fathers world war 2 experiences. i never wanted to talk to him about it because i thought that he didn't want to remember it. but later i decided that he just didn't want to sound like one of those blowhard types you is always talking about the old days and "the big one" and like that, and that he would really have liked to talk if he had thought someone was interested. i did finally get some stories before his altzheimers disease became to pronounced, butnow its too late, and i desperatly wish i could have im back just for a few hours to talk...

-- nicole (nicolemrw@go.com), October 04, 2000.

There's a picture of my parents which I've only seen once that Mother keeps with all the letters Daddy sent her during their courtship. It was taken on Christmas Eve 1954 when Daddy surprised his whole family with the news of their engagement.

It happened this way. Dad -finally- convinced Mother to say yes after many months of doubt and indecision. He also convinced her that he couldn't afford a ring at the moment, which was not true. They decided to keep the engagement a secret for the time being.

Mother was invited to spend Christmas Eve with Dad's family, and to surprise her, he got my aunt to wrap the ring box in a tie box (tie boxes were shaped like the bottom of a tie in those days). He handed her the box and she was bewildered, as she wasn't expecting to get a present. When she opened it and found the ring box with diamond ring inside, Mother screamed so loudly that a baby cousin had to be taken from the room crying. All the family were delighted (I guess they'd been waiting on them for years) and someone took a photo of them, Mother sitting on Daddy's lap in a low chair, both of them with the most enormous smiles radiating excitement and happiness.

Dad's Aunt Lal described it as a match made in heaven, and I guess it was, 'cause they're still happily together 45 years later.

The consolation prize: I have a photo of the receiving line at their wedding in my office, which is a delightful character study.

/Robert

-- Robert (rbdimmick@earthlink.net), October 04, 2000.

My mother never had an engagement ring from my father, for whatever reason, but much later she bought herself a diamond ring and a diamond band. I always loved the diamond band, which was similar to the one I'm wearing now.

She always told me that I could have it one day so I just figured I'd wait. When I was going to marry Al Bundy she gave me both rings and I was planning to have it re-sized so that I could wear it.

Well, Al Bundy left me and the apartment got robbed. Both rings gone.

It's not as if either of the rings was worth very much money but they meant a lot to me and I'd wanted them because they belonged to my mother. The assholes also stole my high school ring, which I know was worth about $1.

-- Colleen (triggirl@yahoo.com), October 04, 2000.

I used to have my father's mother's engagement ring, and a diamond ring that I got for graduation that my mother had gotten for graduation that her mother had gotten from her father when she was really young.

They were both stolen about 15 years ago. Thinking about it still makes me feel sa

-- Catherine (catcoicrit@earthlink.net), October 05, 2000.

I wish I had my father's classified Vietnam records. He didn't want to talk about his war experiences either, but they might help explain how he came to be so fucked up late in life.

I do have his Bronze Star, though. I just don't know what he got it for. He'd never tell me.

-- Catriona (catri696@purpleturtle.com), October 05, 2000.