Second Hand Rose

Remember that song, sung by Barbra Streisand called Second Hand Rose? When I first heard that song a long, long time ago, I thought it must have been written about my mother. Not really, my mom was never anything like that character played by Ms. Streisand. However....

Her name was Rose, she lived on Second Avenue, and she rarely (I can't say "never") had anything that was new. But my mom (Rose) loved her second-hand things. She treated them as if they were new. I do believe, however, that her "piano in the parlor" daddy paid full price for.

Mom played the piano. She never told me who taught her to play but she and her sister (Anne) and even her brother (Joe) played the piano. I can't remember if Aunt Fran, mom's other sister played, but I think she did. I'll have to ask her daughter (Aunt Fran's) next time I write to her. Anyway, back to mom and her second hand items.

Dad was the pastor of a church and I don't believe we had much money, at least not in the years I was at home. In fact, thinking back, I believe you could say we were poor, we just didn't know it.

Our clothes were almost never new, usually from some kindly parishoner who had out-grown them or because they were out of style didn't want them any more. I'm not complaining. Mom made do, and because she was handy with a sewing machine, or needle and thread, she made them stylish. Kids clothes are kids clothes and so our hand-me-downs weren't bad. We just outgrew them so fast, as did the donors. The only things we got that were new were our shoes.

Down on the corner of First and the Pike there was a shoe store and it had one of those x-ray machines so you could be certain you got the right size shoe for your foot. Twice a year we would go and get a new pair of shoes, LARGE -- the x-ray machine showed a good inch for growing into each time we got a new pair. The new shoes were for Sunday, and then the old shoes became our play shoes or school shoes. Once in a great while someone gave us a pair of used shoes, but that was really a rare occurrence. If the soles wore out, mom would take them to the shoemaker (owner of the shoe store) and have them half-soled, or if they were really in bad shape, but still fit, we would put cardboard inside the shoe to cover the hole so that our foot wouldn't be scraping the ground.

Mom's furniture was mostly used. I can only remember one thing in our house that mom bought at a store and for all I know it could have been a used-furniture store. But it was our dining room table, chairs, and buffet. I don't know why she got that set. She had another used set that was serving a purpose. The china cabinet for the old set she kept, and my daughter, Becky, has it now. The buffet to that set my husband and I inherited as our first bureau which became a bureau for our son, after we padded the top and made it into a changing table when he (my son) was a baby. The table and chairs for the old set? I don't know whatever happened to them. Maybe they were so worn out that they just pitched them, although I doubt it. Maybe the chairs went into the kitchen, which had another hand-me-down, drop-leaf table and chairs. Even our high-chair was used -- it was my dad's when he was a baby. I have that now, or still, as it was used by my children when they were babies, and even a few of my grandchildren have sat at the table in that high-chair. It was reinforced with wire to keep it from falling apart. At least it wasn't duck-taped together, right?

Mom was fortunate to get a new stove and a new refrigerator in the early 70s. The refrigerator we had when I was a child was very small. It was a GE back when GE made good appliances. I believe it's still being used by one of her grandchildren (one of my sister's children).

Our toys were often used as well. Even our Christmas present toys. My bike, my brother's fire engine, my baby doll, my bride doll (mom got a doll with no clothes from the doll hospital in Philly and made a bride dress and veil for that doll).

I am grateful for the second-hand things we received, and I know my mom was. Always gracious, she thanked the giver of the item profusely, and then proceded to use it "as is" or remodel/update it.