It rained all night long (a lot) and is still raining a bit this morning. I casually walked to the front door, opened it – and there was no water leaking inside. Nor was there any leaking down the siding next to the door. No more stuffing towels inside the screen door to catch any moisture (yes, I routinely did that.)
What a relief.
A package arrived in the mail the other day from my sister. She’s been sorting through things and is sending me some of my grandmother’s sheet music, which hasn’t arrived yet. But this package was unexpected. It contained three books:
This book belonged to my Grandfather – my dad’s father. I never knew either of my dad’s parents as they passed away before I was born. My dad adored his father. This book is full of songs, folk and traditional, as well as scales and practice exercises. My grandfather’s name is carefully written on the inside, in the form of a circle. I can’t tell you how moving it is to hold something of his in my hands.
I never knew he lived on Butternut Street when he was a kid. Isn’t that the perfect name for a street? Sadly, I googled the address and it no longer exists. It looks like many of the homes in that Corktown neighborhood were torn down.
Also in the package:
Two more of my mom’s childhood Anne of Green Gables series. If you remember, Meredith sent me mom’s Anne of Green Gables a few years back. It has a cover much like the cover of Anne of Avonlea. I also remember Anne’s House of Dreams. All of these books sat on the bookshelves that were built into the wall of our upstairs bedroom – a room that all three of us girls shared growing up. There were copies of all of the Little Women books, Daddy Long Legs, and a lot of others. Many of them disappeared and I suspect my other sister has them. I seem to remember seeing them in her house. I do have Daddy Long Legs. Having all three of the Anne books on my shelf means a great deal to me. Anne’s House of Dreams has an inscription written by my great-grandmother to my mom.
Just inside Anne of Avonlea:
This beautiful illustration by George Gibbs.
You know my mom’s name was Shirley, right?
Thanks, dear sister.
Of course, I’m also thinking about ridding myself of things – I have a lot of stuff. Not my collections, not my cherished books, but there’s plenty more that can be donated to a charity or my local library or sold on Etsy. I tend not to add to my collections at this point, because they’re mostly ‘finished.’ Occasionally, I buy an egg cup like the one I highlighted the other day. No more McCoy. No more Roseville. I’m happy with what I have and don’t need anymore. Who knows? Someday I might sell them, but I don’t see that happening any time soon as I love having them around and I love looking at them every day. Putz sheep? Yes, I might add some more, especially if I can find the rarer black sheep and goats.
We want to clear out our storage space, as well, and downgrade to a smaller and less expensive one. Time to be ruthless.
Okay, I’ve rattled on.
The display of racism and misogyny by white GOP members which occured during the hearings for Ketanji Brown Jackson was despicable. Vile. Beneath contempt.
We will remember.
Stay safe.
Happy Thursday.
What great keepsakes! I agree with you on the hearings. Have a lovely day, Claudia.
Thank you, April!
Stay safe.
Your sister was so sweet to send those books on to you. They are indeed family treasures.
While I didn’t watch the hearings for Judge Jackson, I did catch the lowlights. Can’t believe how vile the republicans were to her…or, maybe I can. It was a despicable display…totally unbecoming of a U.S. Senator.
I understand the urge to thin out one’s possessions….weed out the less significant if you will. I’ve been trying to do that myself. It is not an easy task, but it is a necessary task in my opinion. I’ve been repurposing, and reimagining things. And if I haven’t used it in quite awhile, or it’s no longer important to us, that’s when I try to make an intelligent decision…and leave my heart out of it. Good luck! ;)
I always say I have to be ruthless in these situations. It’s the only way I’ll get rid of things!
Stay safe, Donnamae.
What treasures! I love having some things from my family in my possession. I hope Sara will want some when I’m gone. I know my collections are something I will have to think about at some point. I’ve downsized many things and some collections keeping the most treasured for now. They bring me joy to look at in my home. Hugs!
Exactly. I look at them all the time and I love being surrounded by favorite things.
Stay safe, Linda.
You’ve got that right about the hearing!
Unbelievable!
Stay safe, Tana.
A true treasure with your family’s books.
Marion
Thank you Marion. I’m so pleased to have them.
Stay safe.
Spot-on about the Ketanji Brown Jackson hearings!
The hearings have been quite frustrating and difficult to watch/listen to & bear witness to due to the vile behavior of the GOP members.
Ketanji Brown Jackson has handled the hearings with poise, grace and dignity. Her superior intelligence has outshone the ugliness & pettiness of the GOP questioners.
And oh yes, we WILL remember!
She is amazing.
Stay safe, Amy.
Good morning Claudia! So glad the rain has stayed where it belongs! Makes it more enjoyable to have. Glad those little birds found a roof as well.
Ketanji Brown Jackson is incredible. The “fact checking “ moments and watching the childish stomp offs after being called out were interesting. Not sure those “grownups “ hit the notes they were reaching for.
What beautiful books. The Anne Shirley picture is exquisite. Do you play your piano Claudia?
Have a lovely day everyone!
I agree. They look bad and their behavior is getting called out.
I play the piano but not nearly enough. It needs tuning again.
Stay safe.
It was very moving to see your Grandfather’s music book and his name written in a circle..I loved that. You have a loving sister to send you such treasures.
The (I shall not say their names) republican senators are a disgrace to this country. Judge Jackson put them to shame with her intellect.
Take Care,
Kaye
Park City, UT
I didn’t know that book existed! My dad must have kept it locked away and then decided to pass it on to Mere.
Stay safe, Kaye.
Claudia….I appreciate your love of the well-used, well-loved and quirky items. I feel the same way about some of the silver (plate) items from my mom. I polish them and always remember how she loved to entertain and USE them. I value them for the memory of her. No one else will have that connection when I am gone. Maybe I should write a little note….to be passed down to next owners. My treasures.
Writing a little note sounds like the perfect thing to do, Maria.
Stay safe.
What treasures. Oh, yes, I know exactly that joy you experienced with the music book. And the Anne books — exquisite. Yes, those belong in family to be saved.
I am done collecting new. If someone adds to something as a gift, that’s OK, though I’d really rather they not. About the only things I want to buy right now are books and paint or watercolor paper. I don’t need one more dish or piece of jewelry or THING. I need to dump a lot of clothes and probably a lot of the art supplies I no longer use (I will never bead anything again) and so much more. Before all the dishes and home things go, I will ask Molly to walk through and make choices. The young don’t want everything we have — but you never know!
I just realized that my great grandfather’s recipe book (with the opium lozenges recipe!) should be ready at the book binder’s in June. I took it to a place in Cleveland to get a cover and the pages put back together — it was in three pieces with no cover. I took it in October and they were so stacked up, she said probably not till next spring or early summer. Well, it’s not like I’m making opium lozenges and have to have the recipe at hand. To see these things, written in his own hand, are so special. It’s how I feel about cards I have written in my parents’ or grandmother’s hand. It’s almost a physical connection.
Oh my! Opium lozenges. Hahaha. I have my grandmother’s recipe book and she had a few interesting goodies as well. Funny.
Opium lozenges! Now that’s a recipe book!!
What a treasure that book is. You must be so anxious to have it back again!
Stay safe, Jeanie.
Such wonderful treasures from your sister! I enjoyed seeing your photos and reading your descriptions.
After years of collecting A LOT of things, I’m trying at this age as well to STOP. I keep telling myself, “You have enough.”
I have a stern, well-meaning friend who is continually wagging her finger at me to keep decluttering, not gathering. But I’ve been doing it for so many years that it’s hard to modify the behavior. I’m just so interested in new things I’ve never known about, and I like to see them, hold them in my hands, admire; learn. Seeing certain collected things every day in my home which make my heart sing.
Mostly, I’m just trying harder to save money wherever I can because it’s certainly taking a lot of money to live in older age like I hadn’t anticipated.
This friend is a minimalist who can be pretty judgmental and if I talk of my collections, she doesn’t hide her disapproval (yet she-herself has accumulated a lot of expensive jewelry, which is something I personally have no interest in at all); she says, “Why do you need that stuff? Why couldn’t you have rented movies and not bought DVDs? Why can’t you go to the library and check out the CDs if you want to listen to music? Why do you still buy books; you have the library! Why do you collect dolls and buy dollhouses or nostalgic/classic toys when you’re an adult, not a child? Why do you need pottery just to look at, when you don’t even put a living plant in it? Why do you need knickknacks junking up your shelves? They’re just dust collectors and it dates you; people don’t have curio cabinets or china hutches anymore! It’s not how modern people live! Why do you need windchimes and too many Christmas decorations and so much art on your walls? Why do you think you have to save all that old stuff from your family’s past or your past; the past is gone! Get rid of it; move on! Live in the now!”
OMG, I just have to move off the subject with her. Not bring it up! The only thing that personalizes her drab, colorless, somber but exceedingly-clean & uber-neat, orderly house is the occasional framed family photo, and that’s one thing, I don’t even know why, that my husband and I do NOT display are photos of people; again, don’t ask me why! To each his own! (I have photos in photo albums and scrapbooks, the kinds you hold in your hand like a real book. She doesn’t. My husband has a lot of photos on his phone and Picasa, which is easy for me to gaze upon from the big ‘old-fashioned’ desk computer.)
She doesn’t mean to BE mean, and a lot of what she says rings true, but she often makes me feel bad, like I’m some kind of idiot because I like ‘things’ (she stops herself from saying, “What’s WRONG with you?!”). But I know one-something that’s different between us: I have ‘color’ and whimsy and warmth and charm in my surroundings; my ‘things’ have meaningful stories behind them; hers do not; and, in my opinion, she lives in sterile-antiseptic surroundings that are bleak and have no ‘life’ or personality. She has always been like this, since we were in our 20s, from the time she had her first home and was no longer living in her parents’ house. She could make her home interiors more welcoming and give the ‘cold’ home some character (has always had the means to do so since she was 21 years old due to her positive life circumstances); she does do some small amount of exterior gardening for curbside appeal (even though she has a weekly gardener).
But even in just the past four years, I’ve given her at least a dozen brand-new hardcover books on subjects she likes, only to never see them again (if she did read them, I know she immediately gave them to the library; there’s not a book on a shelf in that house!). I’ve given her a lovely, soft and wooly, nicely-colored and light/loose-weaved EXPENSIVE blanket throw for her sofa or recliner she likes to sit in, but she doesn’t have a throw pillow or an afghan-style throw on any piece of furniture, so I can further imagine she re-gifted this to someone else; I’ve worked hard to come up with ideas for holidays and put together substantive gift bags (thematic, like a spa package of goodies) for her and nothing is ever in sight. I’m giving up and, this coming Christmas, I’m getting her a plant; for her birthday, a food gift. Impersonal but I guess practical. I think with anything that comes into her realm otherwise, her first thought is, “Who else can I give this to? How quickly can I get rid of this?”
And I have to admit, my husband is much the same way. When he retired, he got so many nice retirement cards; I put them in a box and he dumped them. He doesn’t save stuff. Ruthless indeed.
But I realized that beyond that little-bit of garden work my friend does, other than reading novels, she has no hobbies, never has; and that’s a key thing if you’re a hobbyist and collector: We fund our hobbies. We build our collections. We find it so satisfying. Comforting. Fun. Absorbing. Educational. So, it’s down to just different types of people, and I shouldn’t judge either.
I like my putz houses at Christmas; I’m never getting rid of them! Same for my mom and my dad’s ornaments they put on the holiday tree as newlyweds for their first Christmas in the 1940s, long before I came along. I love to pull out an old 33rpm LP record from my teens, hear the scratchy sound on the phonograph-turntable; memories, even if it skips! I love my old dolls! And Mom’s old dolls! My books from childhood are important to me. Books in my growing-up house were scarce but treasured by the whole family. I’ve always put a real value on books; can’t imagine a home without books on the shelves.
My friend says, “Why? Why do you need to keep and own so many things? What is the point of all that stuff? Why do you need all these old dishes and teacups; the ceramic this&that? It’s really older-age baggage now just holding you down; holding you back. Don’t leave all that for somebody else to have to deal with!” (And it’s not like I don’t know this; I work on decluttering a lot; it’s ongoing; I definitely don’t want to leave everything behind like my parents did with me, because it IS too much; fills up the house and is overwhelming. One person’s ‘stuff’ is enough!)
But she otherwise, my friend, just doesn’t ‘get it’. I have my folks’ love letters, stacks of them, from World War II; yesterday my mom and dad would have been married 75 years. It’s MY history, too! I love the faded ink; the delicateness of the paper on which these letters were penned. I’m glad my mom kept my coloring projects from elementary school; they’re precious, from when I was age 6. The first poems I wrote when I was age 8. I am NOT throwing them out! Taking a ‘picture’ of them to archive on the computer (so you can throw them away) just is NOT the same thing.
OMG, I’m ranting; sorry. Your post just really rang a bell with me (about downsizing), Claudia. We shouldn’t have to defend ourselves!
When I said I have no interest in jewelry, I meant I have no interest in buying it for myself (never really had the wallet for it anyway) although I did buy a good piece here and there in my ‘way younger adulthood. (I went thru a period where I was quite drawn to vintage turquoise as I love the American Southwest; also lapis lazuli because it’s kinda exotic! I worked for a guy whose wife was from India and she made the most gorgeous lapis earrings; and she gave me a pair as a gift! [Semi-precious; that deep-intense blue! She’d get the lapis indeed from India although I think most of it comes from Afghanistan-Persia, from what I’ve read.]) I do appreciate fine jewelry, even the terrific costume jewelry from the 1930s-40s, and jewelry can be intriguing in terms of fine craftsmanship-artistry with the ‘metals’ and not just the gems (I noticed your flex ring the other day because the design felt so unique to me).
I just don’t want to sound condescending about people who want to amass good jewelry, as I have another friend who’s made a real ‘job’ of that and a cousin of mine was the same way, which has meant that she left quite a lot of really-nice jewelry for her daughter and granddaughters (she once sold jewelry, so she knew her ‘stuff’). Precious gems and also the ‘regular’ gemstones are fascinating; I’m drawn to the various colors. Like the genuine amethyst or sapphires, emeralds, rubies? Fabulous! (I enjoy seeing Queen Elizabeth’s jewels photo’d and described; a lot of history in her vast and varied, sumptuous jewelry collection.)
Sounds hoity-toity, but I was on a work assignment once in Brazil/Rio de Janeiro, 35 years ago, and I toured a place on my off-time where they were making beautiful jewelry with aquamarine. It’s not my birthstone but it is such a beautiful gem and I figure I like it so much because its name is of the sea and looks like colors of the ocean. Yes, I caved; I had emergency travel money I had intended never to spend, but I shelled out $300 (to me, that will always be a lot!) for one of those rings I just couldn’t resist. It’s been packed away and never worn for a long time, no longer fits my swollen finger, but it is such an awesome icy blue which IS reminiscent of water. I was a beach girl back then, always tan, so the blue-watery color was striking on my brown finger.
Like roses, what girl doesn’t love a diamond, and I do have a modest diamond engagement ring. Their beauty is in their lack of color (although diamonds conversely can breathe fire with the right light of course) and that’s probably why I’m not so ‘into’ diamonds because I go for ‘color’ instead.
And I have now talked about myself far too much, so I will exit sheepishly!
I went through a period where I really loved jewelry, but I’ve come to realize that I don’t like wearing bracelets or necklaces. I love wearing a couple of rings and when I’m working, I wear earrings. But that’s it!
xo
I can relate to this: Don’t exactly recall when I stopped wearing necklaces; I was always an earring person. I seem to be hard on rings and I don’t know why. I never wear gloves when I do dishes and my skin has lost a lot of elasticity so my hand-skin is ugly (not a good show-off for a ring). But my first diamond solitaire when engaged? I somehow managed to wreck a prong; then also somehow cracked the diamond, and that is hard to do I think! I forget what we worked out with the jeweler, but then we went someplace else for my next ring; and now I don’t wear it. Sigh.
(One of my great-grandmothers NEVER took off her ring for anything [gold band] and, gruesome, when she passed, they had to cut it off her finger; I have the ring in the safe deposit box and my intent is to take it to a jeweler and close that gap where it was cut [after all, gold is gold], because it’s plain but sentimental-historical and she’d first worn that ring in the 1800s [married in 1887]!)
But as for wearing full-on jewelry of earrings, necklace, bracelets and rings, of course a lot of that ended for me when I was no longer getting dressed up every day and going to work, being in offices and out in public. I know I got sloppy!
My ear piercings had started to close up because I’ve rarely worn them since lockdown!
xo
You know what? I don’t give a damn whether she ‘means well’ or not, it’s simply none of her business. None. Do you bombard her with questions as to why she’s such a minimalist? No.
Unsolicited advice from me: Firmly tell her it’s really none of her business. You respect her choices, she needs to respect yours. And then let her know that you never want to hear about it again.
No, we shouldn’t have to defend ourselves. And your friend’s reaction is over-the-top, which leads me to believe she has her own issues to deal with.
Stay safe, Vicki.
You know, Claudia, you make a very-good point. I have NEVER brought up anything about her minimalism when instead I could lose my filter and just say out loud: “Hey, don’t you ever want to fill these shelves up with anything like a book or a vase or ANYthing? Do you realize this huge living room with four big walls doesn’t have ONE piece of art on it? Do you realize your house is BLAND and maybe you could give it a little texture, depth, color?” Of course I never say such things; I am POLITE and I don’t want to hurt my friend’s feelings, which tells me she doesn’t mind hurting MINE although I think she’s just trying to motivate me or something, but it is not very nice and must make her feel authoritative, as if to diminish me, and that’s not being any kind of true-blue friend. So, I’ll remember what you said and how I can handle it next time if the touchy subject surfaces. Thanks.
She’s trying to motivate you to do what SHE wants you to do. It’s not her life, not her house, not her business.
xoxo
Thank you, Vicki.
Stay safe.
How special to have those books. I also grew up with two sisters and we grew up in the same room. That is all we knew. I was the middle sister ( oh boy, watch out). We are all 3 1/2 years apart.My younger sister, Pam, lives just a block away and my older sister, Bonnie, lives in San Diego. We are very close.
I wish it would rain here! I too had a hard time watching the Judge be treated the way she was. I thought she handled herself really well. What the heck is wrong with Lindsay Graham! I am also trying to purge through my collections. I started collecting the Dept. 56 villages when they first came out.
Then I started collecting Byers Choice. I am a huge Christmas person but I need to scale down because I don’t have the room for all of them! Don’t know what my kids will want. Are you the middle sister? Seems like we have a lot in common. Always look forward to your blog. Send some rain this way. Take care!
I’m the oldest sister. I’m 8 years older than one sister and 11 years older than the youngest. I also had an older brother who passes away 30 years ago.
Stay safe, Deb.
Oh, you know how I value books!!Such beautiful treasures your sister shared with you. How special to have them.
The Hearings were difficult to watch & I did have to switch them off periodically. She handled each of them so professionally and was so distinguished throughout. I remember Kavanagh crying and stating “I like my beers”. How can one even compare the two Hearings? And we will be regretting those last two Trump appointments for decades to come.
Hope you had a good day and take care.
Kavanaugh’s behavior in his hearing was appalling. And Amy Coney Barrett was completely unqualified to be a Supreme Court Justice.
Stay safe, Chris.