Luxury Goods

Some things are an acquired taste, such as caviar and escargot. At least for most people, others seems are born to it. It seems to happen if you born into a moneyed family and are introduced to such delicacies then of course you enjoy them.

For those of us not born with the proverbial ‘silver spoon,’ it would seem that the opposite would be true, that these things so out of our reach would be things we would have to try to like. That the more foreign the more exotic the less we would take to it. Preferring hamburgers and beer to champagne and strawberries with sour crème and brown sugar.

Having said all that and understanding the reasoning behind it, I still find that in my case, luxury goods have always seemed natural and expected. I have tried very hard to find these things for myself; I have just always been attracted to them. Whatever happens to be the finest and most decadent is what I find for myself.

It’s not as if it happened over time, I just seem to have been born to it. When my mother was in her mid-to-late twenties, and divorced with two girls. Once she was asked out by an older gentleman, for a date. He lived in L.A. and us in Orange County. We had been on welfare for quite some time and my father was not faithful in his child support payments. On the times he did pay my mother used it to pay bills and counted as part of her monthly income, rather than making more money herself and taking that as extra and maybe even saving it for us girls for college.


At any rate, we were used to beans and rice and simple fair. Her date took all of us out the ‘The Velvet Turtle’ a now defunct chain of restaurants that catered to the more sophisticated. As I walked in, I did not gawk or even take the time to look around much at all. I felt no need to stare, that was for sure. I took my seat, in the best dress I had, which my mother had sewn for me.

Taking the menu I quickly found what I wanted, “I’ll have the duck, mother what will you have?” My mother looked at me in shock not knowing who this little girl was in front of her, all of the sudden. I had never eaten Duck, but I wasn’t going to give up my shot at having some. I don’t even know how I knew to order it, had I seen that in a movie? I was only five or six years old.

As a child I was always sickly and in bed, as a consequence I wanted fine sleepwear. Now this I know for sure I saw in a movie. So once, I announced to my grandmother that I wanted a nice nightgown, and it had to trail behind me. I was six, and I was trying to tell her I wanted a negligee with a train.

It is not the price tag either since some things that are shoddily made can be pricey. It is the quality that I go for. It does go with out saying that the most expensive things are what I end up buying, and my taste does put a strain on my pocket book. This is not to say that I don’t buy things on sale or look for discounts. It’s better to have a few nice things that a lot of cheep things.

As I have gotten older I have discovered that this mentality I have is a decidedly European one. Most of my American friends have had to learn this were I have always known these truths in my bones. Now that I have had a chance to travel and have been in Europe, this part of me fits in. Even though to them, I could not look any more out of place. My saving grace has been good manners and use of at least the local greeting. Once they see that I am polite and then they see that I appreciate good things, they smile and are pleasant.

I have no explanation as to why I have this seemingly inborn sense of style; I do know that it can be cultivated. The lesson to be learned? Luxury goods require some thought and lots of money…….Manners on the other hand, cost nothing.

So while I like good quality things, I don’t make it the main thing in my life. Luxury goods can’t hug you when you are feeling low. They don’t tell you that things will work out in the end. They don’t listen to you when things are falling apart and they don’t complement you for doing a good job. They can be a reward for working hard and it’s nice to treat yourself everyone in a while. They don’t take the place of spending time with the people you love and they don’t share a laugh with you. For that you have to call your friends over and have dinner.