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Carol Perkins: Lessons learned from husband's gifts past

'Giving gifts is rewarding, but buying those gifts is often stressful. What to get a man after all these years?' she writes, remembering the times the choices gone wrong.
Next earlier Carol Perkins column: Carol Perkins: Being a part of church at Christmas time

By Carol Perkins

After forty-eight years of marriage and almost fifty-two years of buying gifts for him, what can I possibly buy for my husband, Guy? Tools-he has what he wants and needs; clothes-he has what he wants and needs; lawn care items-he has what he wants and needs. You get the idea!



Over the years, I have given him some memorable gifts-at least to me at the time. However, I can't remember any of them. Do any of us remember the gifts we have given unless something goes wrong? For example, last year I bought Guy a Masterbuilt Smoker. The reason I can remember this is that it was a recent gift and because it didn't work after three uses. It worked one time; the second time it halfway worked and the third time-not at all. I took it back to the store (I didn't keep the receipt) and without the receipt, the manager would not make an equal exchange. He would give me less than half of what I paid for it even knowing I bought it less than a year before and at THAT store. I didn't want the money; I wanted the smoker replaced. Something not quite right about that deal.

Lesson Learned. My choices were to take the money or take home the smoker and see if someone can fix it. That is why I remember this gift so well. Does anyone know how to fix a thermostat on a smoker?

One of the worst gifts I ever gave him (and I must have been living in Hollywood land) was a velvet jacket (I think it was red). This was in the seventies when velvet jackets were popular-in Hollywood. In Edmonton, this would have been considered very feminine unless he played in a band. Why I thought this was such a good gift, I don't know. Needless to say, I took the jacket back and replaced it with something more practical. The look on his face when it opened this gift was a gift in itself!

Golf gadgets and clubs are always welcome, but that would mean he would have to pick out his own. "I don't want to know what I'm getting," he declares. I don't know the first thing about what he has and what he might want. "I'd like a new club," he said recently, "but you can't pick it out."

"Then you pick it out, and I'll buy it."

"But then it wouldn't be a surprise."

I could no more choose a golf club than he could choose a pair of shoes for me or a purse. Women have to pick out their shoes and handbags!

Giving gifts is rewarding, but buying those gifts is often stressful. What to get a man after all these years? Right now, it may be a surprise to both of us!

(My new book, A Girl Named Connie, is available at Blossoms Florist and Boutique Unique, 507 Happy Valley Road, Glasgow, KY 42141, Phone 270-629-3597; the Edmonton/Metcalfe Chamber of Commerce, 109 E Stockton Street, Edmonton, KY, Phone 270-432-3222; and the Lighthouse Restaurant, 1500 Sulphur Well/Knob Lick Road, Sulphur Well Historic District, KY 42129. Phone 270-629-3597. And Also on Amazon.com)

Contact: Carol Perkins, PO Box 134, Edmonton, KY 42129. Phone 670-432-5756. carolperkins06@gmail.com


This story was posted on 2016-12-07 14:32:30
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