The brand new but used blues

If you dish it out, you have to learn to take it too. This seems to work in little things as well as big ones I've been finding.
Being the youngest in a family has its ups and downs, the one major down being the 'hand-me-downs' dilemma. The junior member of our family has had to live with it, seeing as how her parents have thrift built in as a sixth sense, or seventh or whatever.
But little Tessa - actually, not so little anymore - has learned to give back. In fact, she seemed quite pleased with herself handing off one of her slightly used items to me the other day. It's a perfectly good lunch bag, so good that I wonder why she had to go on to a new one in the first place. But I'm happy to get another year or two of use out of it. Waste not, want not. It didn't have a picture of Roy Rogers or Lassie or anything, but I won't complain.
So it goes with the younger family members. I somehow escaped this syndrome relatively unscathed, even though I was at the bottom of the heap. I have a sister just a year older, but fortunately for all involved I wasn't forced to wear her old dresses, despite having had thrifty, reared-in-the-Depression parents. My older brother is quite a few years my senior. The only thing I remember was getting his bicycle, one that had the nasty habit of losing the front wheel when you put it on the kickstand. But I survived that.
Tessa, however, got all sorts of clothes passed along from her older sister. She also happened to have three older girl cousins she was close to. So the previously enjoyed articles kept coming her way.
It was the same with bicycles, starting with the first little one with training wheels that I fixed over and over again - from the time Molly rode it until Tessa pretty much wore it out. This was repeated with the slightly bigger model, again with training wheels that, happily, we were one day able to take off for good.
When it came to Molly's second bike, Tessa was used to the routine. She gave that characteristic roll of the eyes when we talked about her next set of wheels - while her big sister went on to an adult-sized model.
It wasn't until the next time around that she earned a big, pleasant surprise. Shooting up like a weed, she'd quickly outgrown the junior one. She pestered me about needing something bigger until I agreed, yes, that seems to be the case.
"I guess I'll be getting Molly's bike," she said with the usual resignation.
"No, Molly's going to need hers." Her older sister had nothing to grow into, being already on the adult scale. "We'll get you a brand new one."
It's funny the little things that can make a kid's day.
So, turn, turnabout, Tessa got herself a fancy new lunchbag for school this September, since, heavens, you can't be seen with the same one as last year.
Whether she knew it or not, mine was getting somewhat decrepit: from soup spills, carrying overripe fruit and what have you.
"Hey Dad, I got a new lunch bag. You can have my old one." She displayed a rather spiffy green and grey number, well insulated, in great shape - no soup spills since it typically carried a container of whole-grain spaghetti, juice and some packaged snacks.
"Great, I like that one," and I graciously accepted the offer.
And with a few years of school still ahead, I know there'll be more where that came from. I guess I can live with that. She's past the Barbie stage, and she's promised me she'll never get a pink one.