<p>Digmedia, we were recently in Venice and I’m sure the same woman who got your $3 was outside our hotel room for ETERNITY with her dancing Mickey blasting It’s a Small, Small World. Thanks for encouraging her.</p>
<p>Funny how so many of these purchases can be attributed to our spouses . . .
My husband who doesn’t really like the beach once bought a used surfboard. A few years later he got tired of looking at it in his closet so he gave it to our gardener who as far as I know can’t swim.</p>
<p>Well, the gardener can store the surfboard as well as anyone else & who knows, maybe he has a teen your young person whol would love to take up surfing?!?!
Yeah, my younger brother was using some “handy dandy” vegetable tool thingee my dad bought from a TV ad & ended up cutting his finger & needing stitches at the hospital. That was the 1st & last time the tool was used. :(</p>
<p>Well, I’ve read this whole thread and nobody has admitted to my insane purchase, so here goes…a mink coat. I went with two friends (neither of whom were married or had kids) to a fur salon. The salesperson told us “Girls, you just CAN’T be seen on Fifth Avenue in a cloth coat!” (Yes, I fell for this. All three of us did. If my son had inherited MY brains we wouldn’t be looking at colleges now.)</p>
<p>Never mind that I spent far, FAR more time in a subway under Lexington Avenue than walking down Fifth. I bought the thing, not realizing that you have to store them in the summer (which entails having them picked up at the beginning of it and delivered again at the end…hello, tips!). I’m a low-maintenance woman who now has a high-maintenance 20-year old coat (I call it my “weasel”) that I wear once a year. Of course, I bought it in the 80s…just before the anti-fur people got vocal.</p>
<p>At least my several-thousand-dollar lesson was the last one that’s been that expensive. I love my George Foreman and my KitchenAid, the camping tent (used twice) was at least cheap, and our only pet was a hamster who could have starred on “Prison Break”, she was that good at getting out of her $65 Park Avenue Duplex (I am not making this up) cage.</p>
<p>And helimom, I had no idea mink coats needed special maintenance during the summer! Wow, talk about a purchase that keeps on spending your money. At least my ping pong table just stands there silently mocking me but not costing any MORE money. :)</p>
<p>This is a wonderful thread! I think the worst purchase I ever made was a handcarved, 5 foot long walking stick for my Dad, which is still hanging around in my garage–the stick, not my Dad. It has some curves in it and it is stained orange. Needless to say, he was not impressed. </p>
<p>It actually could be a prop for a remake of Cecil B. DeMille’s, “The 10 Commandments”.</p>
<p>We live in HI & have a HI friend whose wife has several fur coats & I believe some leather jackets too. In HI, it’s summer “all year round,” so I’m not sure what she does with her furs & leathers. My hubby said he had a leather jacket that got moldy because of the HI weather. At least they travel a lot & I believe she probably wears them when she’s in SF.</p>
<p>Speech529… the Walking Stick! We have one just like it. My son bought it about 2 years ago in Grand Cayman Islands when we were on a cruise (he had just turn 14)… It was too big for our duffle/style suitcase, he tried to carry it on the plane… it was deemed a “weapon”, and we had to check it through as luggage. They didn’t even put it in a bag or a box… just slapped some bright orange sticker on it, with his name, and shoved it on the conveyor belt. I was shocked that we ever got it back, and it was in one piece. It sits in his bedroom… he & his friends joke around with on occassion…</p>
<p>One persons trash is another persons treasure - I loved our salad shooter and used it until it died! I used it to grate potatoes and onions for hash browns. Less dangerous on fingers then the square box graters.</p>
<p>Well I thought it was a dumb purchase back in 1979- I spent hundreds of dollars for a Burberry trench- size 4. I was a hair stylist, and this was when Burberry only made coats, not everything from swimsuits to perfume, and spending my budget on a coat, didn’t exactly bump my " fashion rating" up a notch.</p>
<p>But- now my 16 year old daughter is thrilled to wear a 27 year old coat and she feels “quite stylish”
They are apparently quite the “thing” with 16 year old girls.
( now we wont mention the various leather coats and jackets I have bought over the years, but aren’t as “classic” as the Burberry)</p>
<p>nymoms2sons:<br>
LOL about two hours after I bought the stick, riding home in the car, I was swept with a feeling of terror…how would my dad get the stick back home by airplane?? I knew it would be considered a weapon…well now I don’t have anything to worry about! I can just check it in as luggage and bring it to him next time I go!! hahaha won’t he be surprised!</p>
<p>This is fun. That salad shooter thing had a very Peppy memorable sound track but I never got why people bought Buttoneers because their commercial looked like a version of the Blair Witch Project…low budget filming, actors looked depressed and like their lives were being ruined by stray buttons, dim lighting, an insane sounding pitchman voiceover. </p>
<p>I have some new thread topic ideas. Lets do consider new ones: Worst GIfts Ever Received, Biggest Home Decorating Blunders, and Yes, I really Did think I looked Beautiful in that Outfit.</p>
<p>Worst gifts–A neighbor of mine has a post-Christmas party every year for the couples who’ve basically all known each other since our eldests started kindergarten. She used to include a gift exchange, where the idea was to bring the worst gift you got, wrapped, and pick another instead (it was all really inexpensive stuff). I thought I had an obvious one with the “electric tie rack” some distant cousin gave my H. (Cuz, reaching six inches farther for that tie in the back is so difficult.) But the guy who ended up with it thought it was really cool! So, you never know.</p>
<p>My H loves his battery operated tie rack too. He has had one since I met him. My sons do not have one yet since they don’t have enough ties for it to be worthwhile (it takes up some closet space).</p>
<p>Worst gifts-Chipped crystal, and a baby outfit that someone else got and forwarded to us (went to return it and found out, it was 2 years old).</p>
<p>Garland, you can zip the tie rack around 360 degrees to see which tie you want to pick for the day. It is an easy way to find the one that you are looking for. My H also hangs belts on his tie rack.</p>
