The knots that bind.

I know I said I wasn't going to talk about Christmas anymore, but one last unexpected thing has come up that I thought you might find interesting. 

It was time (or past time) to gather up the giftwrap and put it away neatly, which usually means I put the tubes of paper in a box and everything else in a huge bag. Well, I was trying to be a little neater this year, and as a result I came across a buried treasure from decades ago, something I inherited and have not yet used. 

This is an unwrapped roll of curling ribbon (or as it's billed here, crinkle ribbon) that my mom bought from Kmart in the 1980s. I'm not sure when, but the price tag says 87, and it could certainly have been that interesting year. The font used for "The Spirit of Christmas" screams mid to late eighties to me. And the price, $1.57 for 400 feet, is definitely old; I saw a similar roll of multicolored ribbon from Target, $3 for just 70 feet. 

I know my mom bought this. She loved to wrap gifts with curling ribbon. I'm not such a big fan, as it really wraps up a box tight and the ribbon often needs to be cut; moreover, half the time I'll have it all done and use the scissors to curl the ribbon, and wind up with a stretched-out busted Slinky of a decoration instead. When it works it makes an elegant presentation. The point is, I inherited a bunch of this stuff from Mom and haven't used it up all these years later.

Mom liked to shop at Kmart. In the late eighties, Walmart was just a rumor on the East Coast. Kmart was everywhere. Now there are only five of them left in the entire state of New York. 

Here's something interesting that ties into yesterday's post: See where the Kmart ribbon was made? 

Yes, the good ol' U.S.A.! Get this: The Target ribbon was also made in the United States! By golly, maybe we can't make appliances or clothes or electronics or furniture or tools or toys or picture books or car parts anymore, but by golly, we lead the world in curling ribbon!

Well, that wasn't why I wanted to post this. I wanted to say I miss my mom, especially at Christmastime, and it was nice to have this little reminder of her. That's all.