About Me: THE COFFEE-GRINDER CHRISTMAS

In my senior year of college, I married my best friend. He was a graduate student on a stipend so we had little money. I had saved $15.00 for his one Christmas present and hoped to find a vintage coffee grinder with which he could grind the fresh roasted coffee beans he preferred.

I had had no luck and now it was Christmas Eve and I was taking one last walk in and out of shops in the antiques district of Baltimore.

I queried each proprietor and they invariably said I’d have to look myself so I went all the way to the back of each shop, tiptoeing to see on top of tall shelves laden with stuff, peering under tables and into dark corners, even peeking into “staff only” areas. No luck.
In the last shop on the street, as I was turning from the back wall of the store to leave – there is was! A cast-iron coffee-grinder mounted on a block of wood with beautiful red, green and gold filigree decorating its painted black surface. It was in excellent condition! I carried it to the proprietor and asked the price.

“Thirty-five dollars,” came his reply.

“Oh,” I said as tears blurred my vision. “I only have $15.00.”

“Merry Christmas!” he said.

The tears were in my voice as I thanked him and wished him a Merry Christmas in return.

He wrapped the coffee-grinder in newspaper and then took a red bow from his Christmas decorations and tied it to the package. That is how I gave it to my husband the next morning and how our first Christmas together became The Coffee-Grinder Christmas.

The Coffee-Grinder Christmas by Abby Freeborn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. For permission to use contact randmxcentric@gmail.com