$12 gift spawned a lifetime of memories

Two weeks before Christmas in 1972, I received a check for half my inheritance from my Grandpa Graham’s estate. I received the second check just before Christmas in 1973.

My Grandpa Graham, a hard-working Nebraska farmer, raised seven children during the depression-era of the 1920s and ’30s. My father had been one of his two sons. He left his farm to find work, finally relocating the family to Boise in the years before the war. After his death, his estate was equally divided among his children by my Uncle Kenny, who served as executor.

My four siblings and I were entitled to a share of the inheritance since our father had died a few years earlier. At Aunt Jean’s suggestion, Uncle Kenney spread distribution of the inheritance over two years – so we wouldn’t spend it all at once, I guess.

That is why I received a check for $12 two weeks before Christmas in 1972 – my share of Grandpa’s $840 estate. Here’s how it worked out: each of his seven children received $120, but my father’s share was divided by his five children, leaving each of us $24. That amount was distributed in the two equal installments – thus the checks for $12.

That might not sound like much, but it meant a lot to me, and I determined to find the perfect keepsake to remind me of my big, gruff-looking grandpa with the unruly Graham hair and bushy eyebrows. Mild mannered and polite, Grandpa had lived in a small apartment after Grandma’s death, spending his time babying a couple of tomato plants in the summer and reading Zane Grey westerns in the winter.

I wanted to be able to look at something that would remind me of Grandma and Grandpa’s old house in Boise. I wanted to remember the years they spent on the big farm in Othello, Wash., and the hours all of us kids used to spend trailing Grandpa around as he took care of the equipment, honed his knives on his old grinding wheel, and made homemade ice cream out of rock salt and ice on hot summer days.

That Christmas I looked for the perfect $12 remembrance when my husband and I went to downtown Spokane for our annual overnight shopping trip and anniversary night out the week before Christmas. As was our custom, we spent the night at the Davenport Hotel, which was pretty shabby in those days, but offered a convenient stay for downtown shoppers.

Despite its worn-out appearance, staying there was still special because as we made purchases at stores like the Bon Marche and The Crescent, we would tell the clerks our room number at the Davenport, and our purchases would be sitting on our bed when we returned from our shopping. That was always fun.

It took hours, but I finally found just what I was looking for at the Bon Marche – a Wallace sterling silver Christmas bell ornament with the date engraved upon it. The price – $11.95.

I used the inheritance money from my Grandpa Graham to buy that first bell in 1972, and a second one in 1973. And, I’ve bought one every year since. In fact, we just bought our 2008 bell last week – number 37.

The good news is, I was right. Those bells do exactly what I hoped they would do. Each year as I unwrap and hang them, I think of my grandma and grandpa and all the good times with my Graham aunts and uncles, and my nearly two dozen cousins. They help me remember the winters full of holiday dinners, sledding parties, Christmas celebrations and church pageants. They remind me of Easter celebrations in the spring and summers full of picnics, swimming parties, corn shucking and canning marathons, and get-togethers for most any excuse.

One more interesting thing about that first silver bell I bought – it is now collectible and worth several hundred dollars, as are many of those other early bells. Not too bad for a $12 Christmas inheritance. Thanks, Grandpa.