<p>Reading the top 10 reasons for feeling ancient thread made me remember my high school graduation gift as well as my husband’s. My gift was to go out to lunch after graduation at a fancy restaurant. My husband received a clock radio.</p>
<p>What did your parents give you when you graduated from HS?</p>
<p>High School graduation: watch (probably cost around $30)
College graduation: nothing</p>
<p>I got a ten speed bike.</p>
<p>An electric typewriter and a suitcase.</p>
<p>A calculator and it could do square roots!</p>
<p>A college education.</p>
<p>A string of pearls. I went to a girls’ school in the South.</p>
<p>(For college, I got… um… dinner. I wasn’t feeling particularly celebratory; my mom was in the hospital and couldn’t make it to my graduation.)</p>
<p>3 pieces of bright red luggage</p>
<p>electric typewriter (hs)</p>
<p>I got my father’s old manual typewriter, the one he carried through WW2 (he was a war correspondent). It had been shot in the “e” in 1943 and there was still a bullet hole in the case, although he had the e replaced after the war ended and he came home. He replaced it with a truly lightweight Olivetti. I’m so old that students still mostly hand-wrote papers; I charged $1/page to type for people.</p>
<p>A set of luggage and a pen/pencil set; still have both!</p>
<p>Strand of pearls–high school. I still have them, although they have been re-strung several times.</p>
<p>Louis Vuitton bag, what is now called the Speedy–college. I still have it and have had a new zipper put in probably 3 or 4 times.</p>
<p>A garment bag for hanging clothes when traveling. My college was a whole one hour from home. </p>
<p>DH got a typewriter.</p>
<p>bracelet with graduation date engraved. Unfortunately the department store didn’t tell my mom that the one she chose was a very thin-plate that flaked almost from day one. Oh well, I still have it and cherish it.
College graduation: No present from anyone, now that I think of it (is it too late to be miffed?) H and I were already married, parents had paid my senior year tuition ($300/semester). I skipped graduation to be in a friend’s wedding. I guess my gift was getting my last year paid even after I got married.</p>
<p>Oh, wow, I forgot - high school graduation was also a set of soft-sided American Touristor luggage. I used those suitcases for years. Cute yellow vinyl with buckles on the faces, all the better to get caught in the automated luggage handlling machinery. I think the last one died in 1984, when I had overloaded it with baby things on a house-hunting trip to Denver. Snow, car seat, tiny rental car, blowing wind, 3 month old … and then the handle of your suitcase fails. Sorry, off topic.</p>
<p>A pair of downhill skiis.
My sisters both got stereos.</p>
<p>but you got skiis… better in my book</p>
<p>My mom gave me really nice stereo speakers for my 21st birthday. They were about 2 feet tall and a foot deep. Now that makes me feel old.</p>
<p>a unicorn, and the holy grail</p>
<p>HS: sewing machine ($100, had it til 5 years ago when I passed it on to my niece)
College: nada</p>
<p>A Seiko watch from my parents, and a piece of luggage from the family I babysat for.</p>