Sending home china and "hand grenades"

For a young American serviceman, on his own for the first time in his life, and lonely for his family, china was affordable.

So was a cuckoo clock.

Such gifts were affordable for an American in 1950's Japan and Korea.  

So my dad took part of his paycheck from the United States Army and plunked it down for a set of china to send to his mother, my Granny Mary, in Harlan, Kentucky.  

At another time, he paid for a cuckoo clock and sent it home to his mother.

I don't know what her reaction was to receiving the china.  I suspect she may have been pleased and happy that her son remembered her and cared enough about her to send a gift home.

I do know, thanks to one of my cousins, what her reaction was to receiving the cuckoo clock.

When unpacking the box that the clock came in, the first thing she unwrapped were the weights that made the clock operate properly.  Not knowing what they were, she shrieked and threw them out the window, screaming, "Good Lord, he's sent home hand grenades!"

Thankfully, the weights were retrieved and the cuckoo clock assembled.

Granny Mary's daughter, my aunt, kept that cuckoo clock.  

My father kept the china.

The reason he kept the china was because, when he got married, Granny Mary gave it to him and my mother because they were setting up housekeeping and they needed the dishes.

I grew up with that china.  We used it for special dinners, and I remember using the smaller plates to eat off of at times.  

Today, that china sits on a shelf on my own china cabinet.  It is the china I use for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  

We will use that china this Thanksgiving.  My husband will cook either ham or turkey, depending on what we choose as our main dish, and we will use the large serving bowl to hold the ham or turkey while we carve and serve it. 

There will be three places at my table, because, in this season of COVID, it would not be wise to travel to family or for family to travel to us.  So it will be my husband, my son, and me at our table. 

Each place will have a china plate, decorated with painted violets, with our fancy silverware.

No, my father did not send home hand grenades to his mother.  But he did send home a treasure that his daughter still uses, a reminder of a time when he was alone and wanted a way to remind his family that he still remembered them.

Just my .04, adjusted for inflation.