Heirlooms

My beautiful mother in the late 1960s. This photo was
taken by my father, who was the first person from whom
I learned anything about photography. Mom and
Dad have already passed on many family heirlooms
to me and they help me learn the stories behind them.



I've posted a number of times over the past couple years (see my old blog for pre-Autumn 2010) about family heirlooms, those fancy things around my house that have been passed down to me from generations past. In 2011 I plan to post a bit more on items you haven't yet seen (largely because many are in storage). This will give me a chance to see them again, inspect them for damage, and catalog information about them so that when I pass them on someday to my son, my nieces (because, let's face it, some of this stuff will probably be too girly for the boy), and any grandchildren or grandnieces and grandnephews they may produce, I won't have forgotten where the world they came from.

Little is more irksome to me than to have a photo with unidentified people in it or an object with a murky history. It pains me when stories are lost to time and neglect. So I'm going to do my part to try to tell the stories of the important objects in my family.

In 2011 you can expect to see somehwat regular posts  about antique and vintage quilts, tableware, jewelry, furniture, books, photos, and other objects. A lot of these things don't fit my decorating scheme so they are boxed up or in the backs of cupboards. But some of them live with us, and some are used daily.

As you read these posts, I encourage you to think about your own family heirlooms and to tell us about them in the comments section. Perhaps you'll be inspired to post about some of them on your own blog. But consider making an effort in 2011 to remember the stories of those objects that are important to you simply because they came from someone you love. And don't forget to pass those stories on to the next generation. If you don't tell them, no one will.