Funny question

[DammitJanet]

Over lunch yesterday, Tony and I were talking about some of the weird and embarrassing things my mom and grandmother had done. At the top of the list was that both of them used to take a large purse into restaurants and fill them up with food, sugar packets and the jelly's on the tables. One time when traveling between Florida and Virginia, when we stopped at this certain place...the sugar and jelly was out going up but gone when we went back...lol.

Do or did any of you have family members (or did you yourselves) have the PURSE? My mom could be dangerous at a buffet...lol.

 

[ThreeShadows]

My mother had the PURSE! She also used to go to the Ladies' Room and steal a roll of toilet paper. She had so many people convinced that she was living on the edge of poverty that people took pity on her and gave her free things. She spent the last years of her life going through the garbage bags in the streets of her neighborhood collecting the returnables. After 9/11 a young man saw her doing doing this and shoved a $10.00 bill in her hand. When she told me this story I suggested that she donate it to the Red Cross (this WAS after the tragedy in NYC), she told me she needed it more than the Red Cross!

When she died, her estate was valued at $1.5 M. She did not leave it to me!

 

[Hound dog]

The after effects of the Great Depression. My grandma had the Purse. lol No condiment was safe near her if she was low on something. She didn't consider it stealing, she paid for it with her meal.

 

[Hound dog]

Oh, yeah..........

And the Purse worked in reverse too. I never got soda and popcorn at a movie. Mom or grandma would bring it from home in their huge purses. Once, Mom wanted us kids to sneak in the back way so she didn't have to pay tickets. sheesh And I swear that at 18 she was still getting me in at "under 12" prices. (baby face and short lol)

 

[1 Day At a Time]

My Mom didn't have the purse, but my friend's Dad was equally embarrassing.
He was a brilliant man with a degree in electrical engineering from Georgia Tech and a MBA from Harvard. Nonetheless, he hated spending money.

His favorite Saturday trip was to take my friend and her sister to the bread outlet. And, to make it worse, he wore his favorite ragged bright orange hat with ear flaps and his ancient sweats. One day he picked up some day old bread from the sale rack and asked the sales clerk if she could offer a lower price. She looked him up and down, obviously decided that he was homeless or close to it , and told him he could take two loaves for free - her treat! My friend and her sister were absolutely mortified, as only teenagers can be!!!

Valerie

 

[DammitJanet]

LMAO...too funny stories. I have snuck in my own drink and candy to movies. I use the bread outlet. My dad is quite well off now but he shops the clearance racks and outlet stores for sales. I dont think he has paid full price for anything in years. But he doesnt mind paying for something for me, or any other family member. He also donates he unused clothing to charity (or us...lol). My dad also has been thrilled to get that senior discount ever since he became eligible...lmao.

Now my Jamie's deceased mother in law was only a few years older than me and she was a pro with the PURSE. She lined it with foil and could carry out a full meal for 3 from a buffet!

 

[donna723]

I have been known to leave the Cracker Barrel with a whole purseful of biscuits ...

We never had a relative who would do that with food, but I had an elderly great aunt who would pinch "starts" off of plants - anywhere! She was my grandfathers sister, sweetest old lady on the planet, and she had a whole houseful of plants that she was fanatical about. She'd pull pieces off of people's shrubbery or rip off branches in a public park - then she'd take it home and root it to start a new plant. When we were kids living in Florida, she came to visit us once and we took her to Cypress Gardens. She could barely walk but she hobbled over every path and trail in the place, pulling big pieces off of every plant or shrub that caught her eye, stuffing them in her giant purse, while we pretended that we didn't know her! By the time we left, she had a whole purseful of green things, more hanging out of her pockets, and both hands full! She only got away with it because she was such a sweet, innocent looking old lady!

 

[1905]

OMG! This is too funny. I just went to the movies with my big purse (we saw The Wrestler)- I brought in a bottle of wine, a wine opener, and a plastic cup! I know, I'm a difficult child. I still have have half a bottle left. When we were back in the car, I took the bottle out of my purse, husband asked me what I was doing, he was sitting next to me during the movie and had no idea I was drinking wine. -Alyssa

Donna, that is hysterical!

 

[Lothlorien]

husband's grandmother would pull over on the side of the road and get the shovel out from her car and dig up a tree or plant. If she showed up at their house when they weren't home, she'd go in the garden and shop for herself. She'd pull all the flowers off the squash and slip them in her pocketbook to fry later. They'd never get any squash after she'd been around. She was a piece of work, that one.

mother in law has been known to slip a cute little spoon or a a particular wine glass that she liked.

The movie thing....never brought wine it, but I have a particularly large purse that I bring water, soda and snack in for a movie, because I absolutely refuse to pay 11 bucks for a soda and popcorn.

 

[klmno]

My mother and difficult child. LOL!

My grandmother (on mother's side) also would "recycle" gifts- if she received linens as a gift, you could expect one of her daughter's to receive them as a gift on the next holiday. I can see the tendency during and after the depression, but I'm not that way and difficult child is. Genetics play more of a role than they think sometimes, in my humble opinion!!

 

[Steely]

Oh, yeah..........

And the Purse worked in reverse too. I never got soda and popcorn at a movie. Mom or grandma would bring it from home in their huge purses

OMG Daisy, I thought MY mom was the only one with the PURSE at the movies. I used to just be SO embarrassed. I would have rather not had the popcorn, than have to walk in with the big PURSE.

I do think it stemmed from the way our parents were raised, most of them by parents who lived through the Great Depression. My mom still does stuff like take condiments..............

On a side note - just because we were kids and being silly, my cousin and I once took an entire table of accessories at a restaurant behind our parents back. I don't know why - just to see if we could? We stole everything down to the silverware, napkins, condiments, etc.

 

[Hound dog]

Now my Jamie's deceased mother in law was only a few years older than me and she was a pro with the PURSE. She lined it with foil and could carry out a full meal for 3 from a buffet!

OMG that is a PRO!!

I also forgot that Mom never paid for us to get into museums and the like either. We always used diversion techniques she'd perfected over the years, or went in the backway when she knew how.

sister in law is just cheap. lol He didn't want to buy steak knives, so he scarfed them each time they went to a steak house to eat. And when he and Travis took Darrin to King's Island last year he let them believe Darrin was 2, instead of 4 simply because they didn't bother to ask. (he's small for his age) lol

Now, I've done the big purse at the movies thing. Our theatre only serves pepsi, and husband loathes pepsi........so I'll sneak him if a couple of cokes.

These are too funny. Great thread idea Janet.

 

[donna723]

My grandmother was a "gift hoarder" too! With six children and nineteen grandchildren, she got lots of gifts at Christmas, Mothers Day and her birthday. Never used a one of them! She put them in a closet to use "later". She wore her same old house dresses all the time but that closet was full of brand new pretty blouses, sweaters, nightgowns and robes. Also coffee pots, mixers, can openers, electric knives, all kinds of dishes and pots and pans - all brand new, still in the boxes! She preferred to use her same 'old stuff' for every day. She still used the same dishes, serving pieces, and even some of the same furniture they got as wedding presents or bought right after their wedding ... in 1908! By the time she died in the late 1970's, some of her 'old stuff' was worth a fortune!

That closet was her "gift closet" for everyone else. She was always trying to give it all away! If your mixer broke, she'd whip open that closet door and tell you to take your pick, and there would be three or four of them, still new in the boxes! Pretty much anything you would ever need was neatly stacked up in that closet!

 

[donna723]

I've lugged a whole 6-pack of the large size bottled water into a major league baseball game before - in a really big purse! I'm kind of against bottled water anyway, in principal, and I'll be darned if I'm going to pay $4 a bottle for it!

 

[KTMom91]

When Hubby and go out to dinner, and a drink is served in a really cute glass, or there's a really cute little serving piece brought to the table, I'll wrap it in a napkin and put it in THE PURSE. He gets so embarrassed...

I bring my own candy and water to the movies, too.

 

[klmno]

Donna, any chance we are cousins?

 

[ThreeShadows]

Wow! I finally realized that I do have things in common with some of you (other than the heartbreak of a couple difficult children). I was feeling sad that during the "walk down memory lane" thread I could not relate to your experiences.

My Aunt Mary would steal towels from motels, "it's included in the bill, they EXPECT you to take them".

Donna, my mother pinched plant tips from all kinds of stores, forced me to be her look out, then took me to Mass every Sunday.

Loth, gotta love those nice Italian ladies who could actually FRY a FLOWER!

 

[donna723]

"Donna, any chance we are cousins?"

klmno, it could be!! By any chance did your grandma still have all her childrens old clothes, toys, board games and comic books stored in her basement ... when those "children" were now in their forties and fifties? So much 'stuff' down there that there was just little paths cleared to get through it all?

My grandma was the absolute Queen of the Hoarders!

 

[klmno]

Oh..never mind, Donna. We can't be related after all. My grandmother kept all that in the attic, not the basement.

 

[tiredmommy]

I recently took Duckie and a friend to the movies. Friend lives in an upper class neighborhood, has the best of everything (I am not exaggerating). This 8 year old child had money in her Coach change purse in her Vera Bradley purse that also held a bottle of water and candy.

So it seems that sneaking in refreshments to the movies will be passed on to the next generation.