Collecting Memories
Collecting. How, when, where and why did I ever decide to collect this assortment of treasured items displayed proudly above my kitchen cabinets, in my china and curio cabinets, and on the walls of my home? Such a variety of trinkets that have found their way into my hands over nearly two decades. There they all perch or hang looking down on me - Waiting on me to take them down, dust them off and place them back in their honored spot. There is the rose teaset that belonged to my paternal grandmother on the bottom shelf of the china cabinet. It came to me when I was in my early teens after she had passed away.
On the shelf above and just to its left stands the bowl I bought my own mother at an auction in Ooltewah, Tennessee. Victorian children facing outward holding the bowl in their hands beckon to me to come play "Ring Around the Rosey." Just above the bowl on the top shelf sets my 8th Grade Prom glass - nothing special - just a cheap trinket to remind me of days gone by. Yet, it holds its own small place of honor there among my other treasures.
My eyes roam to the right and up to the top of the kitchen cabinets. There they are - my original Fire King jadite green glass mixing bowls once owned by my middle school math teacher, my mom's collection of McCoy pottery pink and blue stoneware, Sanders Dairy & Cole Farm Paper Milk Cartons previously collected by my former pastor, a pair of Hull Brown Drip salt & pepper shakers given to me by my Great-Aunt Louise shortly before she lost her fight with emphysema, an enamelware fruit bowl that belonged to my great grandmother Josie, and just beside it an aluminum apple cookie jar that once held my great-grandmother Myrtle's fried apple pies. The list goes on and on inside and outside my house --- my paternal grandfather's plant stand he welded for my grandmother at work after them having a lover's spat, a cowbell from my maternal grandfather's childhood home, so many trinkets gathering dust and being wiped clean, and then gathering dust again. How, when, and where did I ever begin collecting these items? Those stories could fill volumes, but in my walk in and around my home I have certainly stumbled upon the why of my collecting. For I realize that I am not only collecting antiques, memorabilia, pottery, glass, and paper goods. No, it's not really the material things I see around me that brings a smile as I write this. Rather, I realize that in collecting I've managed to collect memories. Memories of days gone by in my early childhood & teen years, memories of those who have passed from this life & passed on their treasures to me, and memories given to me of those I never met but have had the pleasure of coming to know through the memories shared by others. After all, the best collections of all are made up of memories.
Merry Christmas Everyone from Memories General Store. May you have a blessed time with family and friends and make some wonderful memories!
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