I was thinking the other day about 2 bars of soap we have. They are very fancy in their gold and platinum wrappings and look like they might be wonderful, as soap goes. I mentioned them to my wife because they have been in the same drawer for a couple of years and she just said that they were "expensive." So, I told myself, "Okay, no more questions about the soap Bobby, " I learned long ago from my grandmother on my step-mother's side, not to question two phrases: "It's expensive" and "It's for guests." The expensive part I fairly well understood, but the "It's for guests" thing threw me at the time and still does. Grandma Curfman always had little traps all around her house which would ensnare any young boy such as I. Traps that would get me into trouble each and every time I went to her house. The bathroom was totally rigged with special towels and special soaps that I was not supposed to use or even look at. They were for guests. The big China cabinet with all of the "special plates" and the big drawer full of silver ware. Real silver and not that cheap stuff that I always had to use. You know, the forks with the bent tines and make believe ivory / plastic handles along with the sectioned plastic plates. The good stuff was just for guests. Even the chairs and sofa in the living room were rigged. This lad had to sit on the floor even though the furniture was thoroughly covered in clear plastic. The only time the plastic came off is when grandma had, yeah, you guessed it, GUESTS! One time when grandma went out back I got up on the sofa like it was a trampoline and jumped on it a half dozen times just to satisfy some kind of vengeful feeling that I had toward.......it's for guests! When I got off I straightened everything up and sure enough, grandma knew every dern wrinkle on that plastic covered couch and bingo, I got caught again doing something with or using something that was just for guests. The thought that I had was a simple solution to "it's for the guests," and relatively easy to do. Why didn't my grandmother invite all of her guests to her house at one time, divvy up everything that was "just for guests" up among them so they could take what she bought for them home instead of having to go to grandma's house In order to use them? Take the dishes, soap, towels, China, silver, couches, chairs, condiment shakers, and even the derned piano and give it a good home where they will be used by joy filled...........guests! It seemed at the time, perfectly and wonderfully logical and more importantly, less stressful to my backside.
Funny and kind of sad at the same time, Bobby. Everyone has their fine china and crystal stemware that they save For Company. I even dragged mine to Hungary and back and the only time I used it since moving to Fresno 11 yrs ago was when my husband was on Hospice. I figured if anybody deserves to eat a beautiful meal, it's him.
Oh yes the soaps... last Christmas my sister mentioned that she wanted some of those lovely little gift soap sets for her extra bathroom. I searched high and low, you would think such a staple would be easy to locate. Eventually I found a bath set that had some of the little guest soaps in the shape of roses, that would have to do. This year I found rather artistic guest soaps pretty quickly. Mind you I am no slouch when it comes to soaps, I love the hand made soaps I get each year from the Renaissance Festival. They can be expensive but to me they are so worth the price. Which one should I choose? The lovely floating roses or the rose sculptured ones that would be a shame to burn. One look at the cost and I knew, this is why they were always for the guests. I can only figure the lack of availability of this fine commodity in this era is due to the fact so many young woman have inherited the fine soaps of the days of yore from their long gone kin. I wonder if now the saying is... "You can't use those soaps, those were from your Great Grandmother, an enduring testament to the wifely etiquette of days gone by.
Hello and this is my first post in this forum. When I read this thread and the title itself which is "Its For The Guests!" I am interested at once. And when I read the contents of the whole thread the more I am eager to post a comment. I remembered when me and my siblings were still in our childhood days my mom always said to us not to sit in our sofa in our living room so that it will not be deformed and when there are guests in the house it will still be nice to sit on. And when some of our relatives from other countries sent soaps and other personal care products from their countries my mom would not let us to use that but instead she will display it in our bathroom cabinet so that when there are guests in the house they will see that we had different kind of soaps, lotions, powder etc. Things like that which had a resemblance with what you had told in your thread.
At least my mom organized things so that we had a whole room that was just for guests. The front room, as it was called, was never used by members of the family except when we had guests, and only special guests at that. The grandparents, uncles or aunts, or others who came often got to sit in the far more comfortable living room while they had coffee after supper. As I remember it, there were even some carefully placed toys in the front room which we were never allowed to actually play with. I can remember when dad built that room, and I think it was one of those things that he had promised to do for years.
I think one of the reasons I wound up getting a divorce from my 1st wife was the fact that she had unlit candles all over the place. They were in each room, on tables and mounted to walls and even had a candle holding chandelier in the French room. There were molded figurine candles, sconce candles, stick candles, log candles, frangrant and essential oil candles. Forty or fifty doggone bunch of wicks sticking out of wax that were never to be lit !! Until............ It was a dark and stormy night when suddenly, the lights went out. There was an eerie, almost frightening feeling in the now dark, cold damp house. Then..........Heck I'm not trying to write the all American novel, I lit the dern candles!! I don't know what happened to me but after I lit a couple of them everything went blank and when I awoke from my stupor every previously unused candle in the house was doing what it was meant to do: BE A CANDLE!! That was over 40 years ago and I seriously doubt if my X has forgiven me for that moment even to this day.
This reminds me of my first trip to Singapore in 2013. We went to the Duty Free Shop upon arriving back home. I saw the shampoo in cute packaging - a plastic that is shaped like animals. I bought a handful that I had intended for giving away to friends. However, when I came home, I realized that I would have those shampoo for myself. So I bought a glass bowl where I placed those shampoo. Before Christmas, my husband noticed that glass bowl and said he had been seeing it for years but the shampoo seemed not to be diminishing in number. I couldn't reply because I know my husband, he doesn't want excess baggage. So I later on reasoned that it can serve as display when we have house guests. To that, he just nodded.
I've stopped saving everything! ... good China and anything special as I've gotten older. I figured about five years ago, who knows when the clock runs out, so enjoy! .. and forget about saving for some special tomorrow ... Everyday is that day now. .. I use it, or give it away to my kids.