May I Buy You A Drink?

Time is fluid. We have many things to remember. We have many memories.

Once in a great while, something will happen as a direct result of some action or event that you have long past forgotten. That something happened for me today.

There was an 11X14 white envelope in the mailbox today. I recognized the sender's logo for a catalogue I receive frequently. I opened the envelope to find the latest catalogue from The Vermont Country Store, a merchandiser that sells household products, clothing, toiletries, and foodstuffs that some of us remember from childhood or our parents remember. They even purvey toys of yesteryear. Every so often, I have purchased items from them. A box of "Goo Goo Clusters" and soft peppermint sticks for the kids would be delivered at Christmas. I buy shower curtain liners and crisp white bedlinens (hospital crisp) from them.

My husband had favorite drinking tumblers we called "barrel glasses." Perhaps your parents remember them. They became very hard to find. The old hardware store on the square in Denton sold them, but at some point they told me they couldn't find them anymore. One year, this catalogue listed the barrel glasses and I bought 24 for Clu Flu as a Christmas present. Even so, The Vermont Country Store only listed them that one time.

About five years ago, I sent an e-mail to them, requesting that they attempt to look for these tumblers (they would honor customer requests for specific items and prided themselves on hunting items down and listing them in the catalogue). And then, I proceeded to forget all about it.

Before Clu Flu died last year, we were down to our last two barrel glasses. We both thought that we would never be able to get them again.

Back to today...also in the envelope was a letter addressed to me stating that because of my request "some time back", they wanted to let me know that they were offering the tumblers on page 86 of the current catalogue! And even better was the fact that these tumblers were 9 ounce capacity compared to the 6 ounce size we had. The letter went on to say that because they found the tumblers; were offering them again; and to thank me for the suggestion...they were sending me a "redeemable purchase code" for $25.00 toward the purchase of any item in the catalogue. Looking at page 86, I found them...with the notation at the top: "Recommended by Diane Lusk, Arlington, Texas."

Clu Flu would be so pleased....