Monday, June 9, 2008

Sentimental Journey

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The Farmer is not a sentimental guy. I think that's true of most men and that's OK with me. He doesn't pine for the good old days and he's not sentimental about belongings. Imagine my surprise when he had a bout of sentimentality that was centered around a wedding cake topper.

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Recently I overdosed on an all night marathon of Clean House. The next morning I launched on an unprecedented cleaning spree. I cleaned and re-organized two closets and then I tackled a ridiculous 40-year old nightmare known as my cedar chest.

The cedar chest was purchased with my very first paycheck. It never actually held any typical hope chest items such as china or flatware. Instead I stuffed it with childhood scrapbooks and utter nonsense from high school. Other items were tucked inside and promptly forgotten. At this point I proceeded to drag the impossibly heavy "Ark of the Forgotten Nonsense" from Illinois to Texas and back, and then from apartment to apartment, and house to house.

Clean House helped me see the light and it was finally time to unload the Ark and move on. Most of the items were thrown away and others were set aside to donate or to be listed on Ebay. The impossibly heavy cedar Ark was given to someone who needed it.

Enter the Farmer.

"What are you doing with all that stuff?" he asked.

"I'm getting rid of it," I answered.

"What? You're getting rid of our wedding cake topper?"

I sensed true concern in his voice. This was a turn of events. After all, this is the man who couldn't understand why I was so upset about an aging rocking chair he gotten rid of. The rocking chair I'd used to rock my babies to sleep.

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- Do you think she's giving him the stink-eye?

I hated to burst his bubble, but what the heck?

"Honey, it's not our wedding cake topper. We didn't have a wedding cake topper. This is from my first marriage. It's been lurking in the cedar chest that long! We had purple buttercream sweet peas on our wedding cake."

He was sure of one thing, it was our wedding cake topper and no amount of arguing would convince him otherwise. I wasn't in the mood to dig through yet another messy closet in search of our wedding photos so I put the topper in a place of honor on the top shelf of the bookcase in our bedroom.

And there it remained, until yesterday, when I dug around for a photo to include on my Way Back Machine. What's this?

Oh, it's our wedding cake. And look, it has no topper. There are some plastic doves and bells and plenty of purple buttercream sweet peas but no cake topper. Imagine that.

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Here we are cutting the wedding cake without a wedding cake topper.

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(Pay no attention to the really ugly eyeglasses. Many years from now you too will regret your eyewear choices)

At this point I'm not even going to press the point. I'm pretty sure he would insist that someone removed the topper before the photos were taken. That's how stubbornly he holds on to his ides.

And besides, who am I to discourage a man who is sentimental about a cake topper, even if it wasn't his?

18 comments:

Heather said...

Oh, that's cute that he got upset over the wrong cake topper. And I want to take this opportunity to thank you for giving me permission to clean out my hope chest. I've thrown away a few things, but I've always wanted to really clean it out and get on with life. So, guess what I'm going to do today?

Paula B. said...

I'm smiling...it's an endearing story, even if he is mistaken. You should use it on your next anniversary cake - just to make him happy (and give him a legit memory to hold onto!)

And could you please DO something about those word verifications? I feel like I'm trying to type supercalifragilisticexpialidocious every time I want to leave a comment! Your blog seems to have the longest and most complex of any I have seen. (I know it's not your fault, just had to grumble a bit)

Jill said...

I stumbled upon your blog a few weeks back and have been an admirer ever since.

This was such a beautifully, tear jerking post. Such love. Emotion.

Thank you for making me smile today.

bs honey said...

Oh how funny you are. Just keep making my day.

Blessings & Hugs,

Anonymous said...

I love your post today. I do have a question. Is the cake topper still in your house? smile

I need to pick up on your house keeping energy. Inspiration come to me now! Company is my biggest motivation to clean. Even so, I need closet cleaning help and that doesn't happen for company. Smile

Take care, Jeanne

ps. Beautiful wedding cake!!!

BittersweetPunkin said...

Loved your post!! What does one do with a cake topper anyway? I still have mine...and the one from my baby shower cake..LOL. I have some catching up to do here...
Hugs,
Robin

Vee said...

What a fun post! Hope that somehow it's all been cleared up in the farmer's mind. I'm sure that he doesn't really wish to pine for your ex's wedding cake topper. ROFL!

Thank goodness I never had a hope chest. I was quite sure that I wanted one, but it never materialized. Heaven knows what "forgotten nonsense" I might have tucked in there. I do know that when we went through my grandmother's hope chest, she had saved a lollipop. What a mess!

life in red shoes said...

I think Hope Chests must be a thing of the past now, I never hear young girls talking about them. They were all the rage in our day weren't they! I filled mine with hand embroidered pillowcases, crocheted what-nots and dreams. Aren't old wedding photo's a hoot? When #1 first saw ours she asked who that was with Dad! Yeah, I've changed a little.

Suzanne said...

Heather - You have my permission but you probably need to have some smelling salts handy. When you get into the depths of the hope chest you'll never know what you might find. It just might make you faint.

Paula - What a GREAT idea. I'm going to do just that. We will be married 30 years in December and I shall put the topper on our anniversary cake. Sadly, the bakery that made our original cake, with the fabulously delicious rum butter filling, is no longer in business. Sigh.

And just because I love you so much and you're my Grammar Nazi - I DISABLED THE WORD VERIFICATIONS!!! Honestly I never remember setting them up and since it doesn't require that I verify my own existence, I never knew. Now if I get buried in comment spam we'll have to think of something.

Jill - I'm so happy you are here. I can tell you that no one was more suprised than I was about this turn of events. I'm not going to be the one to discourage him from forming emotional attachments this late in life.

Honey - Please pass that along to my family. They ceased to find me funny about 11 years ago.

Jeanne - YES. It's in a place of honor in our bedroom!!! I'm not showing him the wedding photos. He'd just claim that we removed the topper before the photos were taken.

Punkin - You just hold on to them forever and ever. They make terrific artifacts for struggling archaeologists to dig up in a couple thousand years. They'll sit around and discuss their theories on it's meaning.

Vee - Nope. I'm going to keep him blissfully ignorant on this one. I think your grandmother must have been saving the lollipop so that future archaeologists will have something to snack on.

Red Shoes - Oh yes, hope chests have gone the way of the Wooly Mammoth. The women's movement changed all that. Young women don't sit around and dream about catching the right man. That is TOO funny about your wedding pics. I've changed tremendously also. The only thing that stays the same is that haircut!!!!

- Suzanne
Thanks everybody for reading and commenting.

Anonymous said...

That is pretty sweet that he cared enough about the cake topper. Our cake topper sits in my bedroom. I bet my husband doesn't even know. Actually, I'm gonna test him on it now. LOL Ok, he somewhat passed. He remembers the cake topper & us going to buy it together. But he has no idea that it has been displayed in our house (currently the bedroom) for the last 16 yr. He thinks it's in the attic! xoxo, Joanna

Life on the Edge said...

"The ark of the forgotten nonsense," roflmao! I love it! That's classic and I am sure I have several in my house. Isn't it funny how men get a certain (wrong) idea in their heads and can't let go of it? It really is sweet though that he has a hidden sentimental side to him! Great story!

Kady

Anonymous said...

This is hilarious. Contrary to Jill's tearful response, I laughed out loud. Too funny! Loved it.

KatKit13 said...

Awww. He's a keeper. Trust me, I married Baby Huey (long story)

I'm finding it funny that the cake topper is very similar to the one I had 23+ years ago... and the colors on the cake? EXACTLY the same. But I didn't have doves.

If you tell me your cake was lemon filled, well, I'll just know that we were separated at birth...

Anonymous said...

Dee from Tennessee

LOVED this post...laughed out loud. "Stink eye" was the clincher!

Thanks for your blog!

Melissa @ The Inspired Room said...

That was so sweet, loved this post!

Rue said...

Awwwww... what a sweetie :)

I have a cedar chest too! Mine was my great grandmothers that I talked about on the blog before, but you know what it holds?? The same stuff you described. I'm almost afraid to open it LOL

hugs,
rue

Unknown said...

You have totally got to post that on Make me Laugh Mondays at absolutelybananas.com

Even my stoic farmer husband laughed out loud!

Normangirl said...

This is such a hysterical story! I have laughed all morning. Thanks for making my day!