<p>A portable color tv. That was 34 years ago and my husband has used it in the garage until a year ago. My sister two years later got an 8 track player.</p>
<p>I dropped major hints for a typewriter. Got luggage. Until I read this thread I thought my parents were dropping ME a major hint. As for the typewriter, I got to borrow my grandfather’s old Smith. Only problem with it was that the font (was there another word for it back then?) was kind of small, meaning more words per page…and the “e” typed crooked.</p>
<p>A high end Elna sewing machine. At the time I made all my own clothes with the exception of jeans and winter coats. I have used that machine ever since (for 34 years!) and it’s never needed repairs.</p>
<p>Burgundy American Tourister luggage for high school.
Blue tweed Hartmann luggage for college.</p>
<p>All of which now sits, forlorn, in the storage area of my house, because rollerboards have pretty much made that type of luggage obsolete and I wouldn’t check luggage anywhere unless I had absolutely no choice!</p>
<p>Also received monogrammed towels for high school graduation (intended for college) … My kids still use them.</p>
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<p>Typeface! :)</p>
<p>A Smith Corona MANUAL typewriter.(HS)</p>
<p>College–nothing. Was still using the typewriter.</p>
<p>I don’t recall a college graduation gift. I finished in December and was already working but my parents and I went back for the ceremony. The landlady of one of our friends had a cake and punch reception for us, which was nice. Weird time to recall. My parents knew that my boyfriend had spent some nights in my apartment and they pretty much hated me for that, so it’s no wonder there was no gift!</p>
<p>My high school graduation present was my tuition for college.
And that is what I gave my D when she graduated from HS.</p>
<p>By the way, the watch was for my high school graduation. I didn’t receive anything when I graduated from college, and it was the furthest thing from my mind, since my graduation took place during the period of several weeks between the car accident that seriously injured my mother, and her resulting death. I went to the ceremony, since it was just a question of taking the train up to New Haven and back, and I wanted to see some of my friends, but my heart and mind were elsewhere.</p>
<p>^^musicamusica – imagine your D 30 years from now having this same conversation and posting, “I got $50K for college tuition. That was a lot of money back then.” LOL!</p>
<p>Olivetti Underwood manual typewriter…and a set of Sears luggage (blue).</p>
<p>Funny thing…my husband and I met 10 years after HS graduation…he also got an Olivetti Underwood manual typewriter and the SAME set of Sears luggage but in grey.</p>
<p>Wow, typewriters were the gift du jour. I received an Olympia electric typewriter for my high school graduation. I also don’t remember any college grad gift. I have one kid graduating high school and one graduating college this June and I am thinking their college tuition is their big gift (although I think I got my older son a computer for his high school graduation).</p>
<p>College graduation…I got money to buy a bicycle…with a note saying “I wish I had enough money to buy you four wheels but here is money to buy two”.</p>
<p>Our kids will receive a couple of years of repayment on their Stafford loans from us as graduation gifts…that’s it.</p>
<p>I remember getting a bottle of wine from one of my older cousins! The drinking age was definitely lower back then.</p>
<p>Also, one of those fancy pen sets (which I never used but admired greatly).</p>
<p>Nothing.</p>
<p>I rode my bicycle to graduation and then rode back home and went to work afterwards.</p>
<p>None of my family attended. My mother was probably working at the time.</p>
<p>I think that the typewriter for high school graduation has a direct child in the “laptop for graduation” that is common today.</p>
<p>Interesting that nobody today gets “luggage”. Nobody even wants “luggage”.</p>
<p>High School: Smith Corona electric typewriter</p>
<p>College: Oneida Stainless Silverware</p>
<p>nteresting that nobody today gets “luggage”. Nobody even wants “luggage”.</p>
<p>True- but I did get both my kids pretty nice internal frame backpacks for school trips when they were each a jr in high school.</p>
<p>( not to mention both of them kind of took over my daypack- backpack)
" oh- no- I don’t need one- I will just borrow yours"
but then - they never give it back!</p>
<p>They gave me the Death Star.</p>
<p>Add another manual typewriter to the HS grad gift list- a cheaper one than SC. It was infinitely better than the one my mom still had- circa the 1940’s with no covers over the keyboard or the striking mechanisms. I remember typing my senior Honors thesis using Bond paper (no whiteout allowed) on mine, no electric with spell checking or the ability to type over mistakes for me. Also got a card with the “IF” for girls poem in it.</p>
<p>21st birthday was a stereo- with an 8 track player! It was stolen from my medical school apt a few years later. </p>
<p>No college gift remembered- but they helped as much as they could. My mom paid for the car I needed for hospital travel in medical school (loan, license, insurance)- an August purchase (remember when all new models came out in fall?) off the lot- a red Ford Maverick, automatic with black vinyl seats (hot in summer) and an am radio for $3000 including taxes, fees, license plates. No fm or air conditioning (at least it was new so the heater worked- a friend was so used to no heat in his beater he forgot about using the heater when he got a newer used car).</p>
<p>Medical school- a “coffee table” book about the home state- I was leaving it. The sentiment was great, still own it. </p>
<p>I got myself two pieces of luggage to use for our honeymonn 25 years ago- the big soft sided suitcase is long gone (no wheels) but the 3 compartment carryon fits/squishes nicely under airplane seats and still gets a lot of weekend car trip use as well.</p>