Moms Handbag

Looking at my daughters' array of handbags, brought to mind that my precious Mom owned one handbag her whole life.

It was brown leather, large enough to carry her purse, her box of cigarettes and a lighter, a few tissues and her Coty pink Hyacinth lipstick!!
No need for a notebook as her grocery list was written on the back of her cigarette box, (remember they sold them in boxes in those days for a pack of 50!!)

It was also the exact size to fit snugly, nestled on the handbrake between the front bucket seats of her British racing green Morry! Secure in the fact that it would not move when she rummaged in her bag for a cigarette when she stopped at the 'robot'!! (Robot is the name of a traffic light in Zim!!)

He Coty lipstick (she used the same shade her entire life) had a story in itself...A feisty redhead, she once got irritated when the chap behind her hooted at her as soon as the robot turned green. Slowly, carefully, deliberately, she rummaged for said Lipstick, removed the top in full view of the irate driver, and peering obviously in the rear view mirror, slowly and carefully applied her pink hyacinth lipstick, while the impatient fellow behind her fumed and fretted!! Gavin and I were mortified, but she was a prankster by nature and thankfully there was very little Road Rage in those days!!

Back to that brown leather handbag. Genuine Italian Leather was not common in the years after the Second World War. The world had more to worry about then than making luxury goods. But Mom had been given it by a wealthy cousin, we were related to the actual Maserati Family after all.!!

Nowadays, handbags are part of one's apparel. If one is wearing blue, one's handbag must match suitably! Most of us don't go that far, as to change over a modern handbag is a major event!! However, even I do like a light coloured bag for summer and a darker one for winter! It's not the colour of style that worries me but instead it must be big, capacious, roomy, voluminous, big-ass! to accommodate all my goods and chattels! And being a Grandmother, it must also contain wet wipes, toys, bottles, diapers and pacifiers!!

Most modern misses like to flaunt a brand - Gucci, Channel, Louis Vuitton, even if they are often look-a-likes! However I do have a penchant for one particular label - 'Brighton', which I always remind the family at Christmas time!!

Getting back to Mom's handbag, it weathered so well, unlike the modern bags that crack, peel and fade and it surely deserved a place in a museum, much like her watch which I still have! She only had one watch during her entire lifetime. It is an Avia 17 Jewel Incabloc Analogue Wind up, and it still works, keeping time to the second!