The Music Box

Last week for FHE, we were supposed to bring something to have a little silent auction and then bring a story to go with that item. Here's what I brought and my story (the funny events will follow):
"When my great, great grandma Emma was younger, she lived in England in a rather poor but loving family. For her 12th birthday, her family had scrounged together 3 pounds for her to buy whatever she wanted. Her family rarely gave gifts, so this was an incredible sacrifice. Emma was so excited because there had been this jewelry box at the store, and it cost exactly 3 pounds! With the money her family had saved for her birthday, she went the very next day to purchase the box. When she took it home, she discovered it was also a music box! Even though the box is not worth much, Emma cherished it. She listened to it every night before she fell asleep, and although she didn't have much jewelry to put in it, she loved the box.
Eventually, once she was married and had a daughter of her own, she moved to America. Emma played the music box for her daughter Blanche when she was a baby as a lullaby. Blanche also came to love her mother's music box as well. When the time came, Emma gave Blanche the music box to illustrate the importance of willing to sacrifice for others and to show her daughter love. Blanche, after Emma died, held on to her mother's music box to remember her mother by. Blanche passed it down to her daughter Verla, and it has continued through the generations.
Although this is a family keepsake, I think Emma would understand if I sacrificed this music box to help someone else, just as her family sacrificed to let her buy the music box.

Now before you start fretting about how I just gave away a family heirloom, this story is entirely false. (I made it up in like 5 minutes before the activity.) I think the only truth to it is that I have a great aunt named Verla. I originally thought that the silent auction was with real money for charity, hence the last part about sacrificing to help someone else. What it was is that we each got 10 poker chips that we could use to "bid" on what other people had brought and to take it home. Items ranged from a used band-aid to a guitar (that's right... someone brought a GUITAR to just GIVE away...). I made sure we could make up the story, and since it was ok, I had fun with it (since the fun part for me was making up the story not auctioning for items). The funny thing was that several thought my story was real and were really worried that I was giving away such a priceless family treasure. I assured them that it was not such a treasured item, nor a sacrifice for me.

The real story is that last Christmas (I think, could have been the one before that), my aunt gave me some jewelry, and she put it in this box. In fact, my sister has the same type of box only her's is green and oval shaped. I'm sure my Aunt got it at some department store or something. I think that the box is very nice (don't ask me what song it plays though cause I can't remember), but it has been sitting in my closet since that Christmas I got it.

There was a guy there who wanted the box desperately; he even wanted to pay me actual money to take it out of the auction because he wanted it that bad (I'm pretty sure he was getting it for his girlfriend). I probably should have taken real money over poker chips, but I figured he'd probably get it in the end so why make him pay real money for something I'm just giving away anyway. This guy was hilarious; he ended up paying real money to someone else to get their poker chips, and you know what he bid? The infinite symbol. Yeah... he won. Hopefully his girlfriend will appreciate it as much as my great, great grandma Emma did... or would have had she been real.