GOOD THINGS COME TO THOSE WHO WAIT.....

See this car? It’s a 1959 Chevrolet Impala. As a child, I was enamored by its unique tail fins and teardrop shaped tail lights and front turn signals, as well as the long sleek body with the metal stripe on the side. A car in the late 1950’s would have been released in September of the year before the year of the car, so a 1959 Chevy would have come to be in September of 1958. I was just a year and a half old then, and don’t remember that time in my life. I do, however, remember the early '60's, and having the Matchbox miniature of my favorite automobile (the blue one on the bottom right of the picture on the left...huff...puff), and we were inseparable. ­

By the early sixties, the weekly Sunday car rides to my grandparents in Philadelphia became a scavenger hunt for '59 Chevies. I would begin counting as we left the street we lived on, and by the time we arrived in South Philadelphia some 25 minutes later, at least a hundred of these beauties came into view. I would play with the Matchbox version for hours in a day, and never grow tired of it.

I'm going to bring my Mom into yet another of my stories.  I hope you never get tired of hearing of her antics, because I never get tired of relaying them.  You see, Mom was cheap...uh...frugal like me.  Let me rephrase that...Mom made me look like the last of the big spenders!  She was so thrifty that the grocery stores paid her to shop in their stores.  She shopped the buy one-get one free sales all the time, and had a coupon which could be doubled, and if it was Wednesday she could get her senior citizen's discount on top of that.  You could never, no matter how hard you tried, get a better price on anything than Josephine could...and I say that with all due love and respect.

So, I went into a local department store whose prices are out of my range.  My wife Jackie and I went into the store about a month ago and I came upon this shirt with a '59 Chevy that I wanted so badly (See the second picture).  It had several other classic cars, but the ol' '59 was right on the front and in the center.  I looked at the price tag and then walked away with my head hung low, just like I would if I couldn't get a new Matchbox car at the store when I was a boy.  It was a crime that a tee shirt, even one with a '59 Chevy on it, would cost $26.00!

I think what followed was a gift from Josephine....

Early this week, a $10.00 gift card arrived from the store that sold the tee shirt.  We needed to go to the shopping center for something else, so I decided to stop in and look into seeing if their were any bargains to be found.  Lo and behold, the tee shirt I liked so much was on sale for $14.99!  I had my $10.00 gift card with me, which reduced the cost to $4.99!  The icing on the cake was when I realized that it was Tuesday, and the store in question gave old codgers like me that are over 50 a special discount.  The result:  $3.99 for the $26.00 tee shirt.  Thanks to the department store in question...and more than that, thanks Mom.  You've both taught and treated me well!!