Day 331: Mallory’s Department Store was located in Shelley, Idaho, and Mom worked there for her father when she was a teenager and after she was married while my father was away in WWII. She called it The Store. When I was a little girl, I remember going there. My two uncles, Uncle Neal and Uncle Earl, were in charge then, and I just remember feeling awestruck every time I walked through the front doors. Of course, I had written myself into the memories Mom had shared, so my childhood perceptions were undoubtedly far from accurate.
One of the things Mom learned at The Store was how to properly wrap a gift. She had very specific ways to fold the ends so the corners and folds would be crisp. When we were wrapping Christmas gifts, Mom described threading the ribbon through the Sasheen bow machine and then cranking the handle to make a bow. These ribbon bows had hard plastic pointy pins in the middle that held it together. The pointy end was pushed through the gift box to attach it. There were no tiny adhesive sheets back then. I got to see the bow machine in action once, and it was actually as cool as Mom explained.
Gift wrapping season is upon us, and when I sit down to wrap the gifts, I will remember to fold the edges under and crease the ends so my wrapping job would meet with Mom’s approval.
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