What outdoes a beer cap ornament? Try a beer cap garland!
Shown with a bottle of "The Champagne of Beers" for better effect.
Ok, the story behind it: I was just out of college, Nicole was in her Senior year. We had no money for Christmas. We had no money period. We were living in a 2-room flat, and it was the first time we had our own place, just the two of us. In prior years, we had been in giant houses with tons of roommates.Like I said, we really didn't have enough money for gifts, but we still wanted a special Christmas. We bought a $10 fake tree from Target (it was the most pathetic fake tree EVER!) and made our ornaments. This included some tinfoil stars and the pictured beercap garland. All of the caps actually came from the bar I worked at; there are some premium caps on there for beers that were not in my price range at the time!
We put the string of caps on the tree every year still, kind of as a nod to the povery days. It reminds us that we're lucky to be where we are, and also reminds us that even though we were young and poor, we had a lot of fun. I want my kids to see those garlands and know that things aren't always gonna be great, but as long as you remember what's important, you'll be alright.
9 comments:
You beat Chep, methinks.
Your garland kicks ass.
I mean, it's super ugly...I'm not gonna lie, but it's the sweetest garland I've ever seen.
Your kids will, of course, tell their friends that the two of you are crazy...until THEY go to college and realize how cool you are. Still. Wonderful sentiment.
Also makes me want a beer.
Yep, you win.
Did you thread that garland? If I pop back to look at the picture, well it's a time thing. Sure you did. Painstaking work.
I think it's kind of colorful, and definitely cool.
I LOVE IT! YOU SO WIN!
Not only is it odd - and well let's face it - it's a string of beer caps, but it has a GREAT story!
Thanks for taking the challenge - and I am glad I am not the only one around with beer caps on their tree!
When my parents were young and poor, my dad made Christmas ornaments by cutting them out of construction paper and hanging them with bent paperclips.
They still hang a few on their Christmas tree, 25 years later.
That garland rules!!! I love my Hogan (Chep to the rest of ya) but you win. Hands down!
Of course you win, hands down, but I have one remark and a question:
Remark: I see that during college you were not brand loyal. This is how we know you are young. We old folks used to drive from Ann Arbor to Canada to buy the legal maximum of fine French Canadian beer, Goebel, which of course was brewed in Detroit, a suburb of Windsor. Just saying, you're young & I'm old.
Question: Can I buy your house? I can tell from the living room floor that I want it.
Mmm, beer.
Now you guys can afford to make garland out of wine corks. Mostly cheap wine, but there's still always room to make new memories.
That is, if you can remember them after emptying the bottles.
Zilla- make me an offer on the house, we'll see what we can do.
As far as brand loyalty, those bottle caps came from the bar I worked at, for the most part we drank Huber Bock at home ($7 for a case of longnecks), and when we went out, we were fortunate to live in Kalamazoo, where Bell's Oberon could be had for $1-$2 a pint, and occasionally places like Club Soda would do $1 pitchers of Oberon!
Fantastic original!
Post a Comment