<p>Haha--My son got the bedspread with the palm tree & monkey motif! And he is not at all a "surfer boy." I told him he could always turn it over and use the solid color side if he changed his mind later, but he didn't seem to think that would happen. </p>
<p>And I was glad we shopped early while there was still a good selection. If DS is happy, I'm happy.</p>
<p>Slugg - He loves you! He he. Love the trapezoids....</p>
<p>Now this is a valuable cc service we can offer. Hand-me-down bedding for various cc kids. I will gladly hand down daughter's Calvin Klein maroon and pink madras high thread count cotton sheets and her matching but slightly more brightly colored silk throw pillow and her hypoallergenic duvet and reverse plaid duvet cover and the towels in some other coordinating color if one of you just give me some assorted rags of a dark color with inappropriate scenery to use as bedding the day S-dear toddles off to uni. Actually, these days he seems to like to wear shirts that say things like Poo-Poo Head and Party Pooper so perhaps that would be a good sheet theme in a couple of years. I believe it's known as "regression".</p>
<p>Save that old CK madras--it may be retro chic some day.</p>
<p>I just remembered I still have my college bedspread--it was an Indian cotton print (remember when anything Indian was "in"?) that I occasionally use as a picnic tablecloth. I bought it myself after I got to school and I still like it. And I do not remember what my mother sent me to school with. Either not memorable, or so horrible I've repressed it. :/</p>
<p>Alu, maybe you could solve your own problem. At the end of the four years, wash your D's stuff with a couple of brand new pairs of dark blue levis for your S (or with a bottle of black dye) and you'll have the "assorted rags" look nailed.</p>
<p>I think my mother sent me to school with old sheets and old towels, and then she redecorated and bought new stuff for her house. That's the way it was done in those days: parents got new stuff, kids got the hand-me-downs and castoffs.</p>
<p>Ha! Calmom, I must have been channeling your mother. It dawned on me that buying S new towels last year, just so he could deposit them on the floor after each shower to form his own mini misting temples (who knew?) was a lunatic idea.</p>
<p>I sent him off with two hand-me-down sets of towels from our master bath, and updated the sets that <em>I</em> look at every day. At least I still have half a brain.</p>
<p>I shudder to mention this, but... I still own (and rarely but occasionally use) the bath and hand towel set my parents sent me off to college with in (blush) 1972. Yes, nearly 35 years later and they haven't totally frayed. No good explanation why not.... unless they were MAGIC! My older kid lifted a towel from the hotel where they had their senior trip (shhhh!) and took that to college with him.</p>
<p>My kids asked me to save the tie-dyed purple-blue-red cotton sheets they so loved a few years back. Maybe someday they can unroll them and, if they haven't been eaten by moths in the meantime, relive the magical days of youth when they had braces and actually went to bed by 9pm after finishing their homework and their daily 45 minutes of computer time. (HAHAHAHAHA! Oh, sorry, had to pause to wipe the tears of hilarity from my eyes.)</p>
<p>I still have my Indian print bedspreads, too. We never used 'em as bedspreads though (hmm, well, except that one unusually large green one...), we hung them in doorways as cool room dividers. Along with the strings of plastic beads hanging from a cheap curtain rod in the doorway (one of which I still have in my closet doorway).</p>
<p>Gee, I sure do sound ancient. Or maybe I just sound like a packrat. Quick, someone pour me something moderne!</p>
<p>Calmom I wholly own that I feed my loss of kids with shopping:). I am constantly offering to buy them stuff. Luckily they are pretty bored with it by now and only kind of deign to let me purchase presents for them. I think as part of my 12-step program I will just dye D's stuff for S. He is bound to use his towels as mini mistees too. How he manages not to dry himself with his boxers I do not know as they live in the same floor-level temple as his used towels.</p>
<p>Yes, revisiting the Moundbuilders. I think the Msteeing Temples are the next evolutuion, what the Moundbuilders built once they figured out their moms could take them shopping.</p>
<p>I find buying things for myself, except stays in expensive hotel rooms, to be much less satisfying than buying stuff for them. Even new soccer shoes thrill me. Hmm. Might be a worse disorder than I at first understood. Pour me something moderne too and I will drink with moot. Since she saves towels for 35 years and her kids are happy with hotel takeaways if you put me and her in a blender we might be normal:).</p>
<p>JK Mootie, I know you are as normal as you need to be. I'm the one with the odd tendencies.............</p>
<p>Somewhere around the house I still have the hospital baby blanket I accidentally brought home with one of the kids. Made a great bird cage cover.</p>
<p>Having sent S1 back with a duffel plus a case of beer for his boss, we then discovered that he had forgotten to pack linens of any sort. It's actually cheaper to ship old stuff (RL Blue and White stripe) from here.</p>
<p>DO NOT buy your son dark sheets unless he looks like a candidate for the seminary. I bought my son dark sheets and then saw a Bed, Bath and Beyond charge on his credit card. Huh? He nearly died explaining why he needed light to medium colored sheets for his bed....</p>
<p>FFS, Was it the pilled-flannel type, rounded corners, with little hairline alternating blue & pink stripes? Because I have one of those too.</p>
<p>My youngest has our well-used Indian print bedspread (circa 1975) on his bed. He found it in the closet several years ago and won't give it up. I still have wedding present towels, although we use them mainly on the dog and vehicles now. The really ugly ones seemed to have held up the best.</p>
<p>Firefly, I accidentally brought home both of my kids, and they were cleverly hidden in baby blankets. Darn tricky hospitals. Go in for a routine lobotomy, and they throw in a baby! :)</p>
<p>sluggbugg, I went to back to school night tonight and though of you. You would have had some choice observations... geez, the HS parents really look thrashed! Scary to think they are my peeps.</p>
<p>LOL. Slugg OMG. Cheers, I personally live in a long long long shower house:). Unless the seminary has JLo or Beyonce pinned naked to the altar however I must revise my strategy. He he.</p>
<p>SBmom, I just DID back-to-school night tonight (I'm a teacher) and, yeah, I was noticing that the parents look awfully beat up! We're all working way too hard, I say. Where did all the fun go? :)</p>
<p>momof2, I'd have to say we are now wearing evidence all that fun on the corners of our eyes and around our midsections... yikes!</p>
<p>BTW the biggest shock of the night-- even bigger than all my fellow parents looking like Grateful Dead roadies and wal-mart employees?-- was discovering DS has all A's so far, with NO RITALIN. </p>
<p>He said he wanted to try this year with no meds because he does not like the side effects of Ritalin (low appetite & crankiness as it leaves his system.) Last year was his only year on ADD meds. </p>
<p>Everyone cross your fingers that this will last. I am overwhelmed.</p>
<p>SBmom - Blessings indeed! Fingers crossed and eyes too for you & your DS :)</p>
<p>That's great news SBmom! Congrats to your S! :)</p>