Dad came barreling in with great news. I just got a crib. Pregnant and living in a trailer and changes were going to happen.
Our move to a trailer while we were in Texas was due to our budgetary concerns and also to give us more elbow than living in apartment.
A ten dollar crib from whom? Of course, Dad's style of telling everyone your situation may evoke a right response from someone and it did! A young lady needing smoke money with a crib came through. Of course, I was astonished and said, "where is her baby going to sleep". Dad, trying to reassure me that I wasn't stealing from a baby that the mother was leaving to go to a better place but didn't have the money for smokes.
Of course, that meets all the stereotypes of trailer park. Anything for a pack of smokes.
I bought into the crib and it moved with us out of the trailer park.
I laid my daughter in that crib with satisfaction. We were in a new place. My new feelings were that we saved the Crib. It now had the honor of holding my baby. The crib was perfect, our daughter was perfect. Life came together.
A few years later in visiting a relative, I saw how very much my Crib fell short. Though the crib wasn't missing any parts, damaged or unbalanced, it was just a $10 crib. The crib was not a $1000 crib. No thick mattress, No polished wood, and it didn't convert into a toddler bed. No special cushions. Oh no! I may have damaged my daughter with the $10 crib. Will she feel short changed! Will she not get ahead in life. Will she feel poor!
Dad was so proud of his find of that $10 crib just in time of the birth of his November baby.
It was practical, $10 and easy to pack.
I got over the embarrassment of having a $10 crib. I remembered that greatness doesn't come from a pricey crib but humility and gratitude to move on does.
