Ice Blue!

One of the writing prompts I received when browsing Mama Kat's Pretty Much Famous Writer's Workshop this weekend said to list 5 products your father uses (or used) and write a longer piece about at least one of them.  I have been trying to figure out how to incorporate this in the regular writing prompts she sends out on Tuesday, but since she hasn't published the prompts yet, I can't do it.  I felt strongly that I needed to write this one!  So, again, breaking my self-imposed one-blog-a-day rule, I am posting a second one today!

Last week, I wrote about my dad as my hero, so those who saw that post know that he is no longer with us.  However, I clearly remember the things he used!

He used Vitalis hair oil when I was a child.  He used Selsun Blue shampoo,  always used Crest toothpaste (at least as far back as I can remember), and Lavoris mouthwash.  He also used Ice Blue Aqua Velva after shave.  I remember it well.

The first time I ever bought a Christmas gift for my father, by myself (I am sure my mother gave me the money), I bought my dad 2 things.  One of them was a box of chocolate covered cherries which he dearly loved, and the other was a bottle of Ice Blue Aqua Velva.

You know how parents are - especially Dads with their little girls.  You would have thought I had given him a box of gold!  He made such a  big fuss over how much he loved it and how smart I was to know what he liked, that I vowed to do it again the next year.

And, I did.  The next year, and the next year, and the next year, ad infinitum.  Each year, he ate the cherries, and thanked me for the Aqua Velva.  By the time I was about 10 years old, they had started to make Aqua Velva in decorative bottles, so I always looked hard to find something different.  Still, every year, I bought the same 2 items.

When I grew up, married and moved away, Dad always said it wouldn't seem like Christmas without his cherries and his Aqua Velva.  So, he continued to get them.

Fast forward several years...probably about 18 years after I left home.  I was visiting my dad and he asked me to get something for him out of his bathroom, under the sink.  Imagine my surprise, and my chagrin, when I realised he had about 12 boxes of Aqua Velva, unopened, in the cabinet.  When I asked him about it, he just smiled his sweet smile, and said that some traditions were just important.  I never forgot the loving gesture of a man who would rather store unopened bottles of after shave than tell his daughter he didn't need any more!