When I was a child the purses I remember my mother carrying were always big with one of those snap closures at the top that could pinch the skin if you weren’t careful. No over the should casual bag for her. The outside might change, I don’t recall her having a large collection but perhaps a navy blue or black for fall/winter and a white or tan for spring and summer. The insides though, they were almost always the same.
– – – A wallet, as I remember a fat one that held the checkbook too.
– – – A coin purse, one of those squeeze to open kind.
– – – A keyring that wasn’t a ring. It was a crossed teardrop sort of thing and you unscrewed one knob in order to slide the keys on. The top of each knob was a green stone.
– – – Lipstick in a gold colored case/tube. Why the different case for the lipstick I have no idea.
– – – Compact, or pressed powder as I believe it was called back then.
– – – A plastic rain bonnet, one of those little folded up accordian pleated kind.
– – – A silk scarf – one that was big enough to cover her hair (often raised high on her head) and protect her stylish “do” from the wind.
– – – A few bobby pins, safety pins and BandAids
– – – A pen that was usually one of those plastic ones that had advertising on the side
– – – One of those fold-up/collapsible cups
– – – A small package of Kleenex
– – – A few doses of Mylanta tablets that she always carried for me
Edited to add:
Gum. How could I forget that she always had gum? Wrigleys or Dentyne.
Dental floss.
Your turn. What do you remember? What was in your mother’s purse?
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Dang.
I couldn’t come up with that many details about my own purse! 🙂
LOL. I bet you remember more than you think. 🙂
What was in your mother’s purse?
I don’t really remember the contents at all. But she did have a black one. Patent (is that how that word is spelled? or is like the general? patton) leather. All shiny and black, you know. And it had those gold clasps as you describe. I would take a child’s two hands to pry open. To get some kleenex. (we always called in kleenex) And she always had some in there.
Re: What was in your mother’s purse?
Yes, moms and kleenex, which is what we always called it too. Funny thing, we lived with my grandmother and my grandmother always had a cloth hanky in her purse (until she was much older) and my mom had the kleenex.
a cloth one
My grandmother, too!
With lace fringe. It worked better than a Kleenex, if they had to touch it on the tongue and use it on your dirty face –like a cat cleaning a kitten!
A coin purse
My grandfather had one of those “rubbery” red ones with white advertising on it.
I use to like to make it’s “lips move and make it talk.”
Re: A coin purse
Yep. Me too on the talking thing.
And if they had a chain I stole it for hopscotch.
Gum!
Those two, yes.
But the BIG treat was to go to my next-door-neighbor for Juicy Fruit!!!
Re: Gum!
Yes, Juicy Fruit, Chicklets and shoot, what was that one, was it Beems? A friend of my mom’s would have that sort of stuff to share with me.
Re: Gum!
Chicklets! wow, I forgot about those. Yes!
There is/was a gum. Maybe it was Beems. Wasn’t it clove tasting? Or something else. My wife –who’s from the mid-west– grew up w/ it but I didn’t have til art school years.
My hand was never in my mom’s purse. lol. I do know that. She was crazy about us not opening, touching or looking in her purse.
Re: A coin purse
Well right there you have an interesting character. 🙂
The words “my mother’s purse” doesn’t bring up a visual as much as it does a smell. Juicy fruit gum, lipstick, dollar bills. Mmm, all together they make a great smell.
This was my first thought, too! The scent…for my mom’s purse, a combo of her pressed powder, chapstick, and kleenex.
Oh good point. The smells of the purse were something else!
I love the purse memory thing! My mom still keeps her money in a sock. It’s very embarrassing (especially when she’s digging for change and pennies are falling all over the place). Then I found an actual sock-wallet for her (Too funny!) and now that’s what she uses.
Oh I love the idea of a the sock purse! Terrific.
How funny it is that I can’t remember the inside of my mom’s purse. It was (and is) always big, so you know there was a lot in it. I’m guessing–sunglasses (prescription,)a big wallet,THE checkbook (what do men do when they need a check?), and…what else? I’m pretty sure Mom doesn’t carry a book along with her, although she reads plenty at home and on trips. These days, she always has a little baggie of hard candies and sometimes one of those little tins, too.
One grandmother had gum (Trident?) the other lifesavers–butterscotch, assorted fruit, and those little white, powdery, peppermint ones.
It’s interesting, isn’t it, the things our mind chooses to hold on to?
And LOL on the checkbook.
Your post brought me an olfactory memory of Purse: the scent of patent leather, purse lining, mint gum and lipstick.
There really are a lot of purse smells, aren’t there? I hadn’t thought about it at the time but the lipstick smelled different and the powder. I used to love to open the compact and smell the powder.