To be fair, I still have a lot of stuff at my parents' house that I need to go through when I go back to visit so I didn't actually move all of my belongings in this trip. Just most of them.
As I'm going through things and trying to find a place for them all, I'm surprised at some of the unique items I have re-found that I keep in my shop. Some of them I'm going to sell and some I'm just going to keep because of the family history.
This jar and it's contents are one of those items I have to keep because of the family history in it. I also think it is the neatest thing and I refuse to part with it.
As my Mother and I were going through things in the house before I moved out, I remember coming across the container for the first time. I thought it was quite interesting. The design on the cover is rather cracked but still rather pretty.
These were all but one of the items inside. I believe these items were made by my Great-Grandmother as there are many other items in my family that were crocheted by her and I believe that neither my Grandmother nor my Mother have ever been interested in crocheting.
The note attached says:
"If a scarf my dear, you tote,
Simply pin me inside your coat,
Slip the scarf right through
the ring,
Am I not the handiest thing?"
This was the last item that was in there. If you have never seen one of these before (which I had never witnessed before that day), this is an ivory baby teething ring. I was able to find another one online, which had a ring with two bells attached to it so I am going to assume that is how it was originally suppose to look. The item tied on the right side of this teething ring is a note attached by my Grandmother (I'm going to assume as she was a great fan of labeling everything) documenting that this was used by her and by my Mother and Uncle. Considering that my grandmother was born in the early 1900's, I'm going to assume that this is over a hundred years old.
Do I think I'm going to use it when I have children? Probably not.
I do enjoy thinking about my Great Grandmother bustling around her house in her long skirts and hair pinned all upon her head as she bent down to give this to my Grandmother in her crib. For that reason (among many others), I just could never give these things away. Although, perhaps someday they will be featured in the backdrop of other items and bring some history and a little flavor to the picture at hand.
