Friday, June 10, 2011

A day of memories...........through archived photos.

Objects that we surround ourselves with may have little meaning or they may give us each a definite flash back in the past.  A special event or an activity that we were involved with during the time of purchase.



My wife and I returned to Colorado for our fifth wedding anniversary in 1989.  While there, we rode a train up into the hills with black smoke and sulfur falling on us near from the smoke stack at Cripple Creek.  At one of the stores were sets of dishes and we bought this one mug as a memory.  The goose decoration theme was really going strong at that time. It is a heavy thing and I bet the plates were heavy ceramic pieces too.


My mom's very first afghan that she made while we were still living in the old house on the farm.  That would be probably around 1957 that she created it.  She bought it as a kit and my Aunt Mary bought one too.  My Aunt Mary's was in pastels and if you knew my mom you would know that these are my choices of colors, most of her life. The two compared notes so to speak and learned together how to follow the instructions and to complete them at about the same time.


The plastic farm animals remind me of the barn and farm set that I had as a kid. What really comes to my memory it the cold old house that we live in when I received it.  I would play with it on an old linoleum floor of the loving room.  Marbles and balls would roll to the west from one end of the house to the other.  It was a cold house in the winter and a very hot house in the summer.


On the farm the coffee can was a container of many uses.  My dad would store his different nails and fencing staples in these things.  Many times they would be left behind out on the farmstead and one could easily get cut up stepping on them with bare feet. When the lid was cut off of them their was a sharp edge of metal left on the top rim.  They were great cans for my dad to pour milk into after milking the cow so the many cats could have a taste.  The old tom cat had his special can far away from the crowd as he was touchy or grouchy all the time.


The final item is the old iron that held my Grandma Brooks"kitche door open in the summer so the breezes could come into the house from the back porch. That was an old house with lots of history and I remember that door had a table that sat nearby along the wall where the meals were eaten. Everyday the butter and jelly and condiments sat on the table and were never put away in a cupboard.  I think the bread was left there too as well as a box of all bran for breakfast. She had a gingham cloth place over them between meals to keep the flies or flying insects from getting in to them. I can still see her taking the cloth off and placing it back on. When she moved to town she never did that practice again.

It has taken me all day to get this blog completed.  I started at eight in the morning and now that it is after ten at night I have finally finished it.  I had a lot of busy things to do all day and I worked at it off and on.  Thanks for stopping by............

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Larry, I really enjoyed this post. Your Mom's afghan is very pretty. I remember those plastic farm animals and sat for hours playing with them. My brother has a set of old irons and he uses them for bookends. I like that goose coffee mug. My first house was decorated with lots of geese! Thanks for sharing these sweet memories and wonderful photos today.

The Retired One said...

I so relate to this post..we are going through some of our antiques and will be selling a lot of them soon...time to downsize as we have kept them in storage for a long time in hopes of opening an antique store, which we now decided not to do. We have those irons, several of them and I kept some on display in my laundry room along with some old washboards.
It is so fun to look through everyday things from the past.

Far Side of Fifty said...

Hi Larry, Lots of good memories with all these items. I played on the cold drafty linoleum floor too..those old houses sure weren't very warm..except in the summer:)

Debbie Lo said...

So glad you were able to keep these items over the years that have such sentimental value to them. And thanks for sharing your memories too! Your descriptions were so vivid that I could almost picture myself there, Larry.

Have a super week!