Estate Sales - A Study in How We Value Our History
~bias tape, seam binding, rick rack, and pretty trimmings
~a big box of military maps from WWII
~a couple snazzy hats for myself and Zach
~pinking shears
~two swivel frames
~a glass juicer
~a fantastic globular vase
~wooden suit hangers
But as I was perusing the items in this house I got a bit depressed. Not only were a lot of items just sort of strewn around, which made me feel that we shoppers were being disrespectful of the former owner, there were personal items there that I would have thought this woman's family should have taken.
There was a box of photos and, most heartbreaking, a full baby book, with locks of hair, a birth certificate, hundreds of photos, and clippings. Why would this be left in the basement? Did she not have any family left who would cherish it? (Sad.) Did her surviving family see it and decide it wasn't worth keeping? (Sadder still.) Will it end up in a dumpster?
This brings up questions about how we value and care for our past, our histories, the stories of our families. What are you doing to keep your family's story alive? What are you doing to pass important family stories on to your children? Do you keep old things, even if you don't "need" them, so that you can pull them out and pass on your history to the next generation? Or are you so caught up in the here and now that the past will be forgotten?
True that we can't keep everything. But there are some things we should keep, guarding them for the next generation. What do you cherish from generations past? What do you wish you had now that got lost or sold?
I cherish a lot of things... perhaps that is why this house is bursting at the seams..... When my mother went Home 4 years ago, I brought a LOT of things home that no one else wanted for the same reason - to guard the things from being discarded and to have something to pass down to my children. There were some things that got sold or dumped that I wished I could have kept, but there IS a limit to how much one house can hold!