Charm Bracelets, Mothers, and Daughters

“During the 1950′ and 1960’s, the charm bracelet was a must-have accessory for girls.”

….it was the story of your life.  At least for a little while. My bracelet was a Christmas present in 1963. It came with one charm which my mother had purchased along with the sterling silver bracelet.   My mother bought me what she thought was a trumpet…. because I played a trumpet in the school band.  Thing is, she was probably in a hurry, and she probably THOUGHT it was a trumpet… but it was really a trombone!  I was pretty miffed at her.  How could she have made such a stupid mistake?  Of course when you are a 13-year-old girl, your mother doesn’t do many things right. I finally accepted it because one goal of having a truly cool charm bracelet was the number of charms you collected!

During the next few years I bought charms on vacation, received some as gifts, and turned high school award pins into charms…I finally stopped in 1972 when my own daughter was born. You see, her dad has nicknamed her early on…. Gerbie – because he thought she was a ringer for the Gerber baby.  When I saw the offer for a baby charm from the Gerber company, I had to have it!   For 2 Gerber baby food labels and probably $1.99 you could get an engraved baby charm  with your baby’s name and date of birth.   That was the last charm I added to my bracelet, even though I had 2 more children.  Motherhood, careers, and family businesses took over my life and the charm bracelet was put away.

A few weeks ago, my granddaughter (daughter of the Gerber baby), showed me her “Hello Kitty”  charm bracelet that she had received as a birthday present.  I admired it and told her about mine… Next time she visited. my daughter, granddaughter, and I sat down and examined the charms sharing a few stories about some of them.  It was a nice moment.   What would have made it even better?  Having my own sweet mom sitting there with us laughing about the trombone charm.