[A Holiday Blog Tour Stop #5] Susan Page Davis and “The Cheap Skate”

Welcome to Mountain Brook Ink’s 2018 Holiday Blog Tour! We’re so excited you’ve decided to join us on this journey of family, friends, traditions, and memories over the next month. You as our reader have done so much to pour into our lives, and this season we want to give back to you with insights into our lives AND some giveaways. The more days you follow, share, comment, and engage with us, the more entries you’ll have toward a Kindle Fire Grand Prize or one of three Amazon Gift Cards!

Today I am giving away a paperback of Heart of a Cowboy, a collection of four exciting western romances by Vickie McDonough, Yvonne Lehman, Miralee Ferrell, and me!

While cleaning a closet recently, I opened a box I’d forgotten was there. Inside was an old ice skate with a plastic spray of holly leaves and berries twined around it. My heart warmed. I’d found the Cheap Skate!

Sue and Sora

I’m one of five children, and we all had spouses at the time the Cheap Skate was instituted. Each year at Christmas we exchanged names within our generation for gifts to be presented at Mom and Dad’s house in Maine on Christmas Eve. The Cheap Skate was constructed by my father, and it was the prize we’d agreed to give each year to the person who had given the best gift and spent the least amount of money for it. Dad also added a small gift for the winner.

The giving limit was ten dollars. Of course, the selection of the winner was subjective. Was a fantastic gift bought for $10 more worthy than a really cool gift bought for a dollar? If the ten in our generation—siblings and spouses—couldn’t agree who should get the award that year, we voted. In the event of a tie, Dad was always there to cast the deciding vote.

This system led to the giving and receiving of some very creative gifts. One year my oldest sister won it after drawing my husband’s name. We always drew the names for the next year at the Christmas gathering, giving us plenty of time to shop. We also made sure no one repeated the name he’d had the previous season.

Oral Santa 1996

The year Pat won, she started her shopping early. At a yard sale, she found an old wooden tool box with some vintage handsaws in it for $5. That bargain was hard to beat. The “club” mentioned below was an antique golf club that went to my late brother-in-law Ron, a golf lover.

I am pretty sure I won the award the last year it was presented, but I can’t remember now what the gift was or who received it. I only know that we stopped presenting the award after my mom died, the skate ended up with me. Later, after my dad died, we moved to western Kentucky, and the box went with us and wound up on a high closet shelf.

This tradition gave us all a lot of joy with our searching for a gift the recipient would love, our secrets shared, and loving rivalry.

The Cheap Skate

When my husband took the Cheap Skate out of its box to take a picture for me, he found the following poem in the bottom of the box. We believe it was written on the occasion the award for presented for the first time, but none of my siblings admits to composing it:

The Cheap-Skate Award

While feeling quite witty,
We all wrote this ditty
Concerning the “Cheap Skate” award.

You certainly won it,
How could you have done it?
You bought more than we could afford.

It now is well known,
You pared cost to the bone
When buying the dishes and club.

The bottles you keep,
For being so cheap.
A gift from our father, so dear.

He’ll add an antique,
Or something unique
To the skate for the winner next year.

Tho’ you now have the corner
On this dubious honor,
We all want our turn with the skate.

So, return by November,
To be won in December
And make sure it won’t be too late!

–by Ima Cheapskate II

Stop #1: October 28 – Kimberly Rose Johnson
Stop #2: October 29 – Christina Coryell
Stop #3: October 30 – Mary Davis
Stop #4: October 31 – Angela Ruth Strong
Stop #5: November 1 – Susan Page Davis
Stop #6: November 2 – Amy K. Rognlie
Stop #7: November 3 – Gayla K. Hiss
Stop #8: November 4 – Christa MacDonald
Stop #9: November 5 – Linda Hanna & Deborah Dulworth
Stop #10: November 6 – Richard Spillman
Stop #11: November 7 – Annette M. Irby
Stop #12: November 8 – Miralee Ferrell
Stop #13: November 9 – Jeanette-Marie Mirich
Stop #14: November 10 – Anna Zogg
Stop #15: November 11 – Teresa H. Morgan
Stop #16: November 12 – Kelsey Norman
Stop #17: November 13 – Barbara J. Scott
Stop #18: November 14 – Patricia Lee
Stop #19: November 15 – Linda Thompson
Stop #20: November 16 – Janalyn Voigt
Stop #21: November 17 – Cynthia Herron
Stop #22: November 18 – Trish Perry
Stop #23: November 19 – Heather L.L. Fitzgerald
Stop #24: November 20 – Sara Davison
Stop #25: November 21 – Taylor Bennett

Susan Page Davis

Susan Page Davis is the author of more than fifty published novels and novellas.

Her historical novels have won numerous awards, including the Carol Award, the Will Rogers Medallion for Western Fiction, and the Inspirational Readers’ Choice Contest. She has also been a finalist in the More than Magic Contest and Willa Literary Awards. Susan lives in western Kentucky with her husband and two youngest children. She’s the mother of six and grandmother of nine.

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