Fall is the perfect season for what Aunt Betty called Spoiling Bags. Full of novelty products collected from the seasonal aisle at your favorite shopping venue, a Spoiling Bag is fun to share with family members who are young at heart. I am confident Aunt Betty’s legacy of curiosity and good humor can still brighten the journey of family members I know would have adored her.
The Best Neighbors
When I was a child my family lived next door to Aunt Betty. She was my father’s youngest sister. While I was still young, Aunt Betty moved into the old farmhouse where my grandparents raised their family, and beside which my parents had built our home just a few years before. I never knew exactly what curves in the road brought Aunt Betty back to the place she started. All I knew was that my brother and I were glad they did.
Aunt Betty always had interesting stories to tell. Well before she became our next door neighbor, she had travelled the country from coast to coast. When she was young she worked for the army at the Quartermaster Depot and joined the Naval Reserve as a WAVE. Later she worked as a medical secretary at the VA Hospital. She dressed sharply, played the piano, could type better than 80 wpm on an old typewriter and worked the crossword puzzle from the newspaper every day.
Aunt Betty never married and she had no children of her own. What she did have was a warm heart, a good sense of humor and a love for small animals. She welcomed me and my brother into her home whenever we stopped by, which was quite often. Aunt Betty was a good listener and a generous hostess. she was always eager to hear what we were up to and offer encouragement over a glass of milk and a plate of cookies. Needless to say, my brother and I adored her.
The Art of Curiosity
Not only was her competency appealing but Aunt Betty’s curiosity was contagious. She liked to try new things and encouraged us to try them too. While Aunt Hen was a master at traditional recipes and cooking techniques Aunt Betty liked to buy new and interesting food products to share with us. The fun factor definitely appealed to her.
Aunt Betty was the one most likely to buy us kids our favorite variety of breakfast cereal and even in those cute little single serving boxes. Not only was she willing to splurge on our whims, she was as eager as we were to cut open the boxes as recommended to use them as serving bowls. In that time such versatile self-serve packaging was an enigma. We found delight in these uncommon adventures.
Aunt Betty also brought home other interesting finds from the grocery store with my brother and me in mind. She stocked up for our visits and for other occasions when she could spoil us with these curious indulgences.
Spoiling Bags
Over the years perhaps her most anticipated indulgence came to be known as a “Spoiling Bag.” Whenever the family made plans for a road trip Aunt Betty would start gathering. Soon she had a brown grocery bag full of interesting snacks and diversions to occupy us backseat passengers and keep us from getting hungry.
On the road we opened our Spoiling Bags to find snacks both savory and sweet. We also found novelty candies and long cellophane packages of gumballs. Often they included small travel games, toys and magazines filled with puzzles too. We looked forward to Aunt Betty’s Spoiling Bags with great anticipation and we spent many happy hours on the road exploring their contents.
Sharing a Tradition
These days fall is the perfect season for remembering Aunt Betty’s delight in novelty products. I suppose it is only a coincidence that her birthday was in October. In any case, autumn shelves are often filled with new flavor combinations and packaging ideas as manufacturers anticipate Halloween purchases for Trick-or-Treaters. I can seldom resist adding a variety of those appealing products to my cart.
Now that my children have grown up my choices have evolved somewhat. Then again, I still want to share my discoveries with those young adults who are on their own this season. This year I focused my product search on comfort items and energy snacks. I picked up Emergen–C packets, Kleenex, seasonal teas, mini fruit snacks and granola bars. Warm socks and packets of Salted Caramel Hot Cocoa also ended up in my cart. I used treat-sized packets of Pirate’s Booty like packing peanuts and nestled a bag of homemade Soft Peanut Brittle in the center. After tossing in a collection of plastic spiders and squishy mice, I taped the boxes shut and shipped them off. Within a few days Aunt Betty’s legacy of curiosity and good humor had brightened the journey of a few more young people I know would have adored her.
What a lovely remembrance of your Aunt Betty.
PS And I think that I know someone who'd just love to adopt the tradition of a Spoiling Bag. I suspect six grandkids would be the recipients.
never underestimate the worth of a bag or box of kleenex! 🙂