gifts

This morning I was fixing breakfast for the two of us.

Pancakes. I got out the old cast iron skillet first and got it warming up

Home ground whole wheat flour, home ground corn meal, and rolled oats. Didn’t roll those. Add a bit of salt, milk powder, baking powder, oil and an egg and some water there it is. Pretty decent pancakes.

Then I looked again at the skillet. It was a wedding present 52 years ago this summer.

My dad’s father was younger than I am now, but he gave my aunt some money, memory has it that it was $10, and gave her a challenge:

“Buy them some things they will need, solid things, an egg beater, a good cast iron skillet. . .”

The skillet has been through a lot. It has been over heated a time or two and has a warped bottom, but that is OK. We have a new teflon coated wonder, but I really do prefer to use this old black beauty

Then I got to thinking. As far as I can remember, that is the ONLY wedding present we still use, and use almost every day.

Grandpa had been through the great depression, had gone from Oklahoma to California with “The Grapes of Wrath” generation. And when his oldest grandson got married, that background came to my advantage.

Cast iron skillets are not expensive and I am sure we could have bought a new one somewhere along the line, but I still honor Grandpa TK.

I am sending a gift certificate to my oldest grandson for his wedding gift, this time to a top line outdoor store (rei.com) and I wonder how long he will use my gift.