Present On The Counter
This dainty Art Deco statue came home with me from a sale at an antique dealer’s house. The house was chock full of “collectibles”; some lovely and some not so much (vintage brass bullet shells anyone?) I had stopped a prior week and saw this little lady, but she was priced out of my budget at $295. As the house remained stuffed, the company held a “fire sale” the next week, and I swung by again. Needless to say, I did not spend anywhere near that much, and happily carted her home, along with a few other treasures. (A $5 handmade Native American basket because I can never leave one of those behind.)
As I drove home from the sale, my audio book had a character say “I am present and accounted for” – a phrase that recalls a very specific memory for me. When hubby and I were newly engaged we purchased a charming gingerbread brick house in Rocky River, OH. I lived in New York City at the time, and thus ensued a significant change in my life. I left a corporate banking job, packed up my east side apartment and moved via U-Haul to our new home in suburban Cleveland. Hubby was working at a trading firm and I anticipated getting a banking job. The future did not turn out that way, and our lives abruptly changed again after Black Friday in October, 1987. The banking industry in Ohio crashed and hubby lost his job. With no incomes and one puppy, we needed to renovate the house, sell it and move yet again to find jobs. Oh, and there was our wedding during all of that. Thankfully we made a good sum on the house even though we owned it less than 6 months.
During one of those early months, Hubby had come home and headed upstairs. I called up to him and heard him say “There’s a present on the counter for you”. Oh my, what a charming husband! Like a little girl, I dashed into the kitchen and looked about. This was not too time consuming as there was literally one counter in said charming (tiny) kitchen. No present. Huh. No downstairs bath so no other counter. Went back to the stairs and called up to ask where exactly?
“Where’s what?” he yells back down.
“You said there’s a present on the counter for me.”
“No,” he says, “I said: I am present and accounted for”.
37 years later it still makes me chuckle. The term “present and accounted for” is from the military. Interestingly, the US version is redundant – if you are present, you’re also accounted for. The British version is “all present and correct” which doesn’t roll off the tongue, but makes more sense. Honestly to that point in my 24 years I don’t think I had ever heard the term. Clearly, being a newlywed had me thinking romantically – and not hearing what was actually being said. Having now been married for 37 years, I can honestly say we would respond almost exactly the same. He is present. And I am off in the clouds, hopelessly romantic or lost in thoughts. And, as my children would point out, not listening so well. So now every time I see this little statue, I perk up thinking of a possible present on the counter. But honestly, the real present is that for 37 years hubby has been present and accounted for, even if he’s not much of a gift giver.