Wifey and I were entertaining friends at our home last night. Some friends of ours happened to bring their parents along. They are visiting them from Charlottesville, VA. Over cocktails I ask my friend's father (I'm guessing he is in his late sixties) if he ever heard of Shopslondon on Water Street in Charlottesville. He looks at me with this shocked look. He tells me he loves the place and how in the heck did I know about it.
I proceed to tell him that although I have never actually been to the actual store, that I am familiar with it via the internet.
He informs me that he uses a brush and a vibrating Mach something or other that has a light on it that his daughter purchased for him. He also tells me that he is wearing TOBS' Eton College.
Well, I don't want to inundate my guest with the avalanche of information I could lay on him , so I don't.
He then confides in me that although he enjoys shaving with a soap (Williams) and a brush he wishes that he could find the "old-style Old Spice shaving mugs".
He looks at me and holds up his thumb and index finger and says: "You are probably too young to remember, but they were about this high and yay wide. I wish I had saved mine."
I look at him and say: "Would you excuse me for one minute?"
I go upstairs into my bathroom and find my Old Spice mug ( I take the cake of Institut Karite out of it. Hey, I'm generous but I'm not crazy. ) and I walk back downstairs.
I approach my friend's father and say: "Listen, I want to give you something and don't give me a hard time. I want you to have this." He gives me a quizzical look and I proceed to hand him the Old Spice shaving mug (1966).
He is shocked. He is stunned. He is speechless. He is happy.
He held that mug in his hand for the remainder of the evening. He held a vodka and soda in the other hand.
He was like a kid on Christmas morning. I would catch him occasionally glancing at the Old Spice mug and saw him being transported to another time in his life.
All that for a six-dollar shaving mug. His daughter called us this morning to say that her Dad wanted to convey his appreciation again. (What he doesn't know is that I enjoyed giving him that mug 10x more than he did receiving it.)
I love it when that happens.
I proceed to tell him that although I have never actually been to the actual store, that I am familiar with it via the internet.
He informs me that he uses a brush and a vibrating Mach something or other that has a light on it that his daughter purchased for him. He also tells me that he is wearing TOBS' Eton College.
Well, I don't want to inundate my guest with the avalanche of information I could lay on him , so I don't.
He then confides in me that although he enjoys shaving with a soap (Williams) and a brush he wishes that he could find the "old-style Old Spice shaving mugs".
He looks at me and holds up his thumb and index finger and says: "You are probably too young to remember, but they were about this high and yay wide. I wish I had saved mine."
I look at him and say: "Would you excuse me for one minute?"
I go upstairs into my bathroom and find my Old Spice mug ( I take the cake of Institut Karite out of it. Hey, I'm generous but I'm not crazy. ) and I walk back downstairs.
I approach my friend's father and say: "Listen, I want to give you something and don't give me a hard time. I want you to have this." He gives me a quizzical look and I proceed to hand him the Old Spice shaving mug (1966).
He is shocked. He is stunned. He is speechless. He is happy.
He held that mug in his hand for the remainder of the evening. He held a vodka and soda in the other hand.
He was like a kid on Christmas morning. I would catch him occasionally glancing at the Old Spice mug and saw him being transported to another time in his life.
All that for a six-dollar shaving mug. His daughter called us this morning to say that her Dad wanted to convey his appreciation again. (What he doesn't know is that I enjoyed giving him that mug 10x more than he did receiving it.)
I love it when that happens.
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