Most people, including my own husband, know their grandparents, and maybe their great grandparents, and that is it. I am proud to say I know a few generations more than that, and even have heirlooms from them.
I started thinking about this today, when I “inherited” this antique ornament from my Dad. My son and his girlfriend have two kittens and we are worried that this will get broken if we hang it on the tree this year, at my Dad’s. So I offered to give it a home.
This ornament is most likely a hundred years old. It was my father’s grandmothers, dating possibly to the 1920’s. It’s a heavy ornament, and still a pretty color. I placed it on my counter, and put a pretty bow on it. There was a string attached to it, and I left it on, as who knows who placed it there? I like to let my mind wander with items like these…… I imagine my Great grandmother decorating her tree with it. I imagine my Grandmother Nellie enjoying the Christmas tree with many of these ornaments decorating it. I am actually lucky enough to even have a pic of the Grandparents that owned this ornament, and who knows, maybe they inherited it also.
I am lucky to have parents that saved items from their family, and even luckier that their parents did the same. I have antique shot glasses, formal silverware, hand painted plates, a wooden horse plaque, made by the man in the balloon, and now this ornament. As I get older, I realize the importance of family history. And I am always telling my children where these items came from. Who these people were to them, so the memory of them lives on. It’s my way of honoring my grandparents, and our history together.
Art and Musings by Marnie 