Back in the late 70′s, right around the time the movie “Grease” came out in the movie theaters my husband had just landed a lucrative job working for a company that sold rare coins and stamps. Part of his job involved travelling around the United States, going to coin shows to buy, sell, and trade coins. For the first time in our married life, we were rubbing elbows with the wealthy people.

One of the things that I really liked about this part of our lives was the fact that my hubby was starting to shower me with expensive gifts.  I’ll never forget the night that he took me in town for dinner to celebrate our wedding anniversary and as we walked from the Chinese Restaurant to the car he steered me into the store that had fur coats for sale.  He told me that he had to speak to the store owner for a moment, so I busied myself by looking at some of the beautiful leather purses that were in the store while he spoke with the owner.   After a few minutes it appeared that my husband and the store owner were going to be talking for a while so my attention moved over to the racks of fur jackets for women. This was the first time I had ever been surrounded by so many fur coats for women in my life.

I ran my hands along the surfaces of the coats. They were so soft, so beautiful. Sable, fox, mink, rabbit.  I closed my eyes and imagined myself back in time, in a horse drawn sleigh travelling across a snow covered lane, being  kept warm with fur coats and a fur hand muff.  It reminded me of one of the scenes in the movie Dr Zhivago. I couldn’t believe it when my husband suggested that I try one on, just to see how it looked on me. He helped me put it on. I walked over to the full-length mirror and twirled around, admiring the way the hood framed my face perfectly. He exchanged glances with the store’s owner, and then said it was getting late and we needed to leave. We put the coat back on the rack, said goodnight to the store owner and went home. Imagine my surprise a few weeks later, on Christmas day, to open a box with that fur coat inside it!  The coat was beautiful. It was a good time in my life.