The Christmas Coconut

We had a very nice Christmas here at the Compound.  The dinner crowd was smaller than usual and there were no out-of-state visitors this time.  So, it was a little quiet and we enjoyed that for a change.  We had a nice dinner of ham and Marguerite's famous Sugar Cane Bourbon Glaze slathered all over it.
But no food photos this time, instead I want to tell you a story.
In the summer of 1969, a couple of years before I ever met my husband, he needed a summer job to make money for his first year of college at the University of Alabama.  His father had been a Merchant Marine for quite some time now after serving in WWII in the Navy.  He would go off on long trips; traveling all over the world, to make money to send home to his family.  This particular summer he was going to Viet Nam, carrying Army supplies to bases there.  He "got" Bogie a job working in the kitchen on the ship.  They left port from New Orleans (I think) and headed down to the Panama Canal.  Bogie (that's my husband now) was very sea sick, and they were planning on letting him off in California when they got around to there if he did not improve by then, and send him back home.  But, just a day before they were to reach the west coast port, Bogie improved and was able to make the full journey to Nam and back.  I love it still when he tells me about his trip into the war zone.
As they went through the Panama Canal, they stopped at different ports and Bogie bought some souvenirs.  He had always wondered what happened to the coconut bank he brought back from the canal.  Today, he often goes to the consignment shop on base at Redstone, where he works to see what little gems he can find.  He has brought home some interesting things from there.  Because it is on an Army base, people who are moving on bring things there to be sold that don't seem to have much importance the them anymore.  The photos will tell the rest of the story...............

Coconut Bank was still a dollar!

.This was the best Christmas gift ever.  It meant a lot to him and also to me.  It was filled with change too, but the change will stay put in the bank, you would have to break the coconut to get it out, and I am not doing that!!!