The Tumbler That Went to Every Veterans Meeting

The first week of March I ordered three tumblers from Lifetime Creations and handed them out at Thursday coffee. One for Ray, my brother. One for Dale. One for Hank. I did not order a fourth, and I want to explain that before anything else, because it is the whole reason I trust this thing.

I am not a veteran. I was too young for the draft and I never served. Ray did four years in the Navy, Dale did his time in the Marine Corps in the 1980s, and Hank retired out of the Air Force after twenty years turning wrenches on aircraft. I am the civilian at the table. I make the coffee and set up the chairs, and I am the one who does the shopping when somebody needs something.

So when I went looking for a gift that would actually get used, I had a rule. Nothing that puts a man in the position of thanking me for a compliment about his service. Nothing that turns into a shelf ornament. I wanted something a man would pick up on a Tuesday without thinking about it.

What started all of this was Walt Nowak's funeral in mid January. Walt was Navy, one of Ray's friends from the post, dead at 81. A few days after, I stopped at his widow Marge's house and her flag was still in the plastic sleeve on her kitchen table. I went home and took my father's flag out of the dresser drawer where it had sat since 2009. That is a longer story than this one. But it is the reason I was in a buying mood that winter, and the reason I was paying attention to what lasts and what does not.

Ray's coffee is still warm at lunch. That is the whole review, and it took eight months to be sure of it.

Here is what the listing says, and I checked it against what showed up. 18/8 stainless steel, double wall vacuum insulated, matte finish, sliding lid, 3.5 inches wide by 6.5 inches tall, 20 ounces. Hand wash only. The engraving is the same on every one: VETERAN, the flag, and Thank You for Your Service. No name personalization, no branch named. Lifetime Creations cuts the lettering in Merrillville, Indiana, and the listing says it comes out exactly as shown. It did.

Ray is the one to watch, because Ray has a routine. He fills the tumbler at home, drives to the gas station for a paper and a little conversation most mornings, and comes back. Before March he did that with a ceramic mug that has an anchor on it. That mug is still on his kitchen counter. It stays home now, because it goes cold in the truck and it spills in the cup holder when he takes a corner. The tumbler fits his white Ford pickup's cup holder and does neither. His coffee is still warm at lunch.

Dale is harder to read. He is not a man who says much about a gift. What I noticed is that his tumbler rides in the truck door and comes out at the table, and about a month in he asked me where I got them, which from Dale is a speech. Hank took his home and I see it less, but he mentioned the lid, that it slides rather than screws, and that he can work it one-handed in the truck. Small thing. It is the kind of small thing that decides whether a gift gets used.

What I'd Tell You If We Were Sitting at My Kitchen Table

I would tell you the engraving is the reason to buy this one and the reason to think twice. VETERAN, the flag, Thank You for Your Service. It is not subtle. Some men want to be spoken to that way and some men would rather eat glass. Ray wears a Navy cap everywhere he goes, so you know which kind he is. If the man you are buying for has never once mentioned his service in your hearing, this may not be his gift, and that is worth knowing before you spend anything.

I would tell you that Lifetime Creations engraves the same three lines on every tumbler it ships. There is no name on it, and there is no branch on it. For Ray, Navy for four years, that was fine, even good. For a man who wants his branch on the cup, this is not that cup.

I would tell you it is hand wash only. All three of them have managed it, but if the man you are buying for runs everything through the dishwasher, expect that to be the thing that ends it.

I would tell you the lid is not leakproof if the tumbler tips over. It slides. It is fine upright in a cup holder and it is not a sealed bottle, so do not put it in a bag on its side and expect a good outcome.

What I keep coming back to is March. I ordered them because Walt died and because I had been thinking about what a man keeps and what he sets down. Eight months on, nothing has broken. Ray's has been through a gas station parking lot most mornings since. It still holds heat, the Lifetime Creations engraving has not worn at all, and nobody has gone back to the anchor mug. If you are shopping for a veteran and you want a thing that gets used instead of a thing that gets admired once, this is the one I would hand you at my kitchen table.