RootsChat.Com
General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: Lydart on Wednesday 26 May 10 21:56 BST (UK)
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I've been listening with great enjoyment to the BBC radio series "The History of the World in 100 Objects"
Would it be interesting if we put together a collection of ten objects we have, which illustrate the history of our own families ? Not census returns or certificates, but actual 'things'.
A list will do; a photo of the collection would be better !
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what a lovely idea Lydart :)
I'd probably end up with 10 miner's lamps ;D
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Great idea. To illustrate our History, what would I choose???
Well an old well loved shoe or boot due to a lot of travelling plus the main trade of my Scottish and Leicester ancestors. But apart from that I just cannot think straight off the top of my head. So will ponder.
xin
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Hmmm. Tricky one Lydart.
I think that I'd have to start with dirt... for all them ag labs that I have, and maybe a horse or two for the stockmen here in Aus.
Some gold for the prospectors, some dirty dishwater for the women through the ages and some mouldy soggy wood for the mariners.
Kangaroo feather for those that served in the Lighthorse, handcuffs for the police and beadles and a cotton reel for the Lancashire mill girls.
A beer glass for the gr grandfather that had lots of money from hotels but drank it all away and lastly a blank piece of paper for the printer in London.
Karenlee ;D
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I haven't got to ten yet but I would have many miners lamps (I've already got my husband's - all polished and sitting in my glass cabinet), a flat cap for my Yorkshire folk. I don't know too much yet about my Scottish side yet but I'd have to include maybe the Scottish thistle as they're growing all over my paddocks at the moment. A packet of salt for my Cheshire flatman, and maybe a model of a canal boat. Some old boots and maybe a shamrock for my Irish bootmakers. India poses a problem, - maybe a sari for their military service out there. And Australia, ...where do I start. Riding boots, a shovel for the convict side, a beach towel and zinc cream?
I'll have to keep thinking, this is harder than I thought.
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My 10 Objects:
saddles
plough
hammer
chalk - teachers
pen & ink
needle & thread
crochet hook
sewing machine
rolling pin
Regards, Gazania
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Having set this challenge, I now find it quite hard to make my own list, but will try ! These are all objects I have still ...
1. To represent the ag. labs - a well worn spade which was my grandfathers (although he was a generation or two beyond the ag. labs)
2. Grandfathers wooden stool, which he cut down and repaired from an old Post Office stool, where he was a sorter during the depression.
3. My mothers sampler of Dorset buttons, which she was taught how to make by her grandmother, who had been a Dorset button maker
4. One of those wooden shoe lasts or leather working tools of my fathers - he was apprenticed to a bespoke shoe maker
5. A WW2 ration book !
6. Flower pots and flowers = my Hampshire grandmother who loved flowers, and was a great gardener, despite being exiled to a life in London, and who passed on her love of gardening to me !
7. An African basket or water pot to represent me and my children
8. Something political ... I've got an old voting card ... to represent the women in my family who fought for womens votes
9. Books ... all the family valued education and reading ... maybe my uncles old school atlas, which showed most of the world still pink !
10. Can I have something quite big, which I dont actually possess ? If so, a Canadian covered wagon from the 1890's, which my great aunt lived in and gave birth to some of her children in, and which was the start of a long line of Canadian cousins !
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1. "Russian John's" wooden tool chest (empty).....he built railway carriages
2. My grandpa's wooden tool chest (empty).....he repaired London transport buses.
3. Grandma's 2 flat irons (still using them in 1960s !).....her mother and grandmother both laundresses.
4. Instructions for building a television (Dad made it so that we could watch the coronation in 1953).
5. Ration book (WW2)
6. My identity card......issued in 1949.
7. Medals issued to my grandma for good attendance/conduct etc. at school; 1 bronze, 1 silver and 1 gold
8. Small table made by my dad just before he left school.
9. Swimming certificates won by my mother in 1930s.
10. Medals awarded to my uncle (RAF); shot down in WW2.
I've got them all in my house apart from my uncle's medals; my dad still has those.
Nanny Jan
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Here's the link to the BBC programme and where you can see all the objects ...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/
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Great idea for a thread Lydart,
For my family I would have the following:
1. The photograph of my great grandfather from France in 1915.
2. The photograph of my great grandparents from the 1920`s which sparked my interest in family history.
3. Bricks lots of my ancestors were builders who moved from Berkshire to London.
4. A coach for my coach builder ancestor
5. Pots and pans for my cook grandmother.
6. a typewriter for my mother and sister who were a typist and secretary.
7 A map showing how my family travelled to Canada, USA, Australia and New Zealand
8. A ration book to show how my mother and grandmother and grandfather had to move due to bombing.
9. A shamrock to represent my Irish husband and anglo-irish children.
10. Can`t think of a number 10!!
Have a good weekend everyone.
Sarah
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1. A hand made nail
2. A duelling pistol (Mad Irish Gt. gt. grandfather)
3. A Surgeon’s Lancet
4. A sack of grain
5. An inkstand
6. A Miner’s Lamp
7. An Artist’s palette
8. A Nought to One Micrometer
9. An Accounts Ledger
10. A Police Helmet.
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Great thread Lydart!
My list of 10 treasurers that I have are....
1. My gr grandmother Mary Heffernan's wedding band, which I wear
2. A Biltmore Hat Box from the Company that my grandma Whyte worked at her whole life until she retired to look after me.
3. A ugly fish ashtray that my gr grandmother Elizabeth Stanley brought with her to Canada from B'ham which turns out her brother in law made and his children have the same one.
4. My gr uncle Joe's silk maps from WWII when he was in the RCAF
5. My grandpa Stanley's harmonica and guitar
6. My gr grandfather Stanley/Gandley's bugle which he was given when he was in the Boys Brigade in B'ham
7. A little dog made out of iron that was given to my dad when he was little
8. A 2 gallon crock jug which my gr gr grandparents used to make whiskey in
9. A water colour painting that my gr grandfather Thomas Shorter brought with him to Canada, it's dated 1860
10. My gr grandmother Susan Dawkins confirmation book from her church in Ireland
I am lucky to have been given larger items from my husbands items, my favourites are my piano which is a Heintzman built in 1904 and a large hutch that was my husbands gr gr grandmothers.
Karen
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Only ten - gosh, how to choose? Here are ten but I shall probably change my mind by tomorrow!
1) Grandmother's clocking-on token, wage packet and transport pass from her days working in a munitions factory during WW1.
2) Same grandmother's handbag. My mum used to get it out occasionally and it always seemed mysterious and full of treasures.
3) Great Uncle James's death penny, especially since I found his grave in Belgium last year.
4) Paternal grandfather's knitted beret. After he died in 1968, I used to wear it, not out of any sentimental sense, just because they were, briefly, quite trendy!!
5) Great grandfather's Master Mariner Certificate. I know you said no certificates but this is a real one from 1899, all battered and slightly frayed. A real treasure.
6) A letter from my maternal grandfather to his wife, in which he refers to my mum as a tiny child.
7) My father's 'Nouveau Petit Larousse Illustre' school prize from Robert Gordon's College, Aberdeen in 1939. Dad should have gone to university to study languages but chose to join the navy instead and so missed out on the education and career he deserved.
8)My concertina. It is an antique in its own right but is probably what brought me into contact with the vast majority of the friends I now have. I must try to research its history one day!
9)My dining table. Nothing out of the ordinary but I remember mum's pride when it first arrived, brand new and shiny, in the house about fifty years ago. Every time I polish it, it reminds me of her. And every time I polish it, a little bit more of the nicotine staining comes away on the cloth!
10)The Maling Ware, Rington's Tea jug which was on our window ledge throughout my childhood and is now on mine.
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1 tools of a Tinker bits of tin hammer etc my gt gt gt Grandfather Michael
2 tools of a farm labourer scythe etc my gt gt gt grandfather Richard (and many more of them)
3 tools of a potter lump of clay and a potters wheel My gt gt grandfather James
4 shoe last my grandfather Tommy(not a cobbler) always repaired the families shoes
5 apple pie my grandmother Alice made the very best
6 small brooch with a ruby and seed pearls engagement gift to my grandmothe Maggie from her husband Jack
7 many many songs and tapes of my late Dad Jim singing
8 piece of glass my mother Dot was a glassblower
9 lots and lots of photos from happy family holidays
10 photo of my Mum and Dad taken during ww2 while he was on leave from the army
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1. Pepper pot in the form of a Peeler in a green uniform (peelers were the forerunner of the present day police force i believe
2.ink nib pen bought in France by my grandmother when she traveled as a nanny to a family it has an ivory carved handle and a spy hole which if u look through you can see a small lace picture of the Oprah House in Paris
3. Picture of my grandfather on a horse in uniform when he was in the Boer war
4.One of my grandfather with his woolly monkey which he returned with from oversea. The monkey that was also sent out in Peterhead to bring him home from the Pub when grandmother had his dinner ready :)
5. Granfather medals from 4 wars he was in and the tin box Queen Mary sent out to the troop with some gifts in for Christmas.
6. love letter written to my grandmother by my grandfather while they were courting
7. another picture of my Grandmother aged about 5-6
8. a gold muff chain belonging to my great grandmother
9.memory's of my granmother in her flat Prison quarter's Peterhead with the gas lights and the black leaded range where she kept crabs in the fender waiting to be cooked
10.German Iron cross Oak leaf cluster medal given to my grandmother by an German officer who won it in the 1st World war when he was being sent home after the 2ND world war. He gave it her as she would pass hot soup to the German prisoner as they came up from working in the fields in front of the prison staff quarter's. She did have a lot of local peoples back up for doing it but her reply was " I just hope some women in Germany is doing the same for our men "
The medal was a gift of thanks and the officer who gave it to her said it was nothing to do with the Nazi's and he was not one of them
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This thread is marvellous.....
I have complied a list of 7 objects and will post when I have reached 10.
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I'd completely forgotten I'd started this thread ! Its nice to think I get the occasional good idea !
Keep going folks ....
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Here goes with my ones :)
1. My mum's wedding ring which I wear all the time.
2. My dad's signet ring given to him by my grandparents on his 21st birthday in 1938.
3. My dad's WW2 memorabilia including his Army pay book.
4. The brooch dad made for mum from the plastic material used to make false teeth in the shape of
Army Dental Corps badge - couldn't afford an engagement ring in 1945.
5. A plaster caste impression of someone's teeth which dad made in the 1950's.
6. Photographs of my dad being presented to Princess Margaret in 1964.
7. Photograph of my great grandmother - my avatar. Never knew what she looked liked
until last year when I met up with a relative who gave me a copy.
8. Photograph of my other great grandparents and their 9 children taken at the outbreak of
WW1.
9. A carnival glass dish which belonged to my mum's foster mother.
10. My late husband's medal from the Canal Zone.
Only 10 needed so I will need to stop there :'(
Dorrie
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What a topic to re-awaken memories!
From Liverpool England to NSW Australia.
1. A shilling for the gas meter
2. A wrapped up fish and chips supper
3. A red tie or a blue tie for marching in processions around a church in Waterloo
4. 30+ Sunscreen
5. Space
6. School uniforms (we moved a lot in the job)
7. A Rugby League Football
8. Family photos
9. A positive Everton result, if you class that, as a thing
* The internet which gives us much pleasure in communicating with people on such topics
This I offer.
Alan
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Difficult, but here goes:
What would represent my family history:
1 A spadeful of sandy but fertile soil, well-manured by the cattle ancestors also farmed (no, I've not actually got one to hand, but I did once take a small sample in a plastic bag)
2 A sheep's fleece and cattle hides (other ancestors, leather workers and saddlers), and a spool of silk (weaving)(No, not got them, either, although there's a very tired old luggage strap I'm told was made by one)
3 A bag of carpenter's tools (ships' carpenters and joiners in my line, and I have a very few old woodworking tools still) , and an old paint kettle and set of (now perished) rubber rollers and signwriter's brushes, shedding hairs gently.(representing later occupations of family members)
4Two boxes, one a "Queen Mary" soldier's box, containing my paternal grandfather's WW1 medals, and the other with (most) of my own father's WW2 medals
5 A "starter tree" ( with what I later found out were lots of errors, but it got me started
6 An old watercolour box, its dried-up pans replaced over the years, dating back to my grandparent, and used by my mother and myself, and a tatty old porfolio with a few fragile studies in it by Mum and grandfather.
7 A cardboard folder of anonymous family photographs that represent constant frustration.
8 Grandmother's old cameo ring - worn often, and some of her other jewellery.
9 (OH's) a cobbler's last, retained after his father had learned that skill in the Army in WW2
10 An envelope of old greetings cards, invitations, and tickets, including granparents' ticket to Canada, and later one back to England
-And the thing I most wish that I still had? The excellent upright German made piano that the above grandmother bought and took with her everywhere. It was donated at last by my parents to a chapel.
TY
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What a fascinating lot of objects! Here goes with mine!
1. My grandmothers sewing shears- as a child my aim was to just be able to lift them up.
2. My mothers wooden concertina sewing box - made by Italian prisoner of war. Still with all her original sewing items in!
3. My fathers MBE, citation and other WWII paraphanalia.
4. My grandfathers photo
5. My aunts chineese silk stole
6. The school my gt.gt. Grandfather built in 1830's in Switzerland (still standing and being used) sorry I know it's quite a large 'object'
7. My gt.gt. Grandparents photograph.
8. For my gt uncle buried in France (WWI) the poppy I bought from the Tower of London display in his and all those other fallen young men's memory.
9. A bottle of perfume for grandfather as he was a perfumier.
10. My family tree which has led me to so many wonderful discoveries.
This is a small offering - very hard to choose.
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Well I only knew 2 out of 4 of my grandparents, so after prolonged contemplation here is my list:
1. A gold bangle brought to me as a present from my maternal great aunt who escaped from Austria to USA.
2. A silver bracelet brought to me as a present from my paternal great uncle who escaped from Germany to Israel.
3. The A35 green company van my father used to drive for his job.
4. The ration book issued to my brother on his birth in 1954
5. A packet of letters written by my mother to my grandfather.
6. A book written by my [mathematician, journalist,] paternal grandfather.
7. A Bakelite knitting wool holder. I believe it belonged to my maternal grandmother.
8. A pinchbeck mourning brooch inherited from my paternal grandmother; I believe it commemorated her sister who had died young, possibly as a result of diabetes.
9. My maternal grandfather's wedding ring, engraved with the date and his bride's name.
10. A silver pincushion from a chatelaine, presumably belonging to my mother's grandmother.
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Choosing representative items from what I have was an interesting exercise. Here are my ten.
1. A family tree of one branch of my family, which made me realise how little I knew of the other ones.
2. A sampler embroidered by my 2xg grandmother in 1841. Her sewing skills carried on down the family, though not to me. Her grand-daughter was also a skilled embroidress, and made lace as well.
3. Despite her embroidery skills, for my grandmother her hospital matron’s hat. Nursing led her to meet and marry my grandfather, pharmacist /surgeon/physician.
4. For him, his pestle and mortar. Pharmacy came first, and helped fund his medical studies.
5. He came from a family of seafaring men. For them, a large top shell, brought back from foreign parts.
6. My other grandmother baked lovely cakes. From her I have a sturdy, but very worn, wooden spoon.
7. For my paternal grandfather, who despite having had only primary school education, became a joiner, then a foreman for bridge-building companies, a photo of the Mountain Scenic Ride he helped to construct at the Glasgow Exhibition in 1911.
8. My Dad’s 1st birthday card from his grandmother.
9. His Chindits badge. He was an Army Chaplain in WW2 and was proud to have served with them and others.
10. My mother’s recipe books which represent almost 80 years of her life, from her training at Domestic Science College, through wartime service as a NAAFI supervisor, to teacher, and mother.
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3. The A35 green company van my father used to drive for his job.
I do like Isabel's list, but it prompted me to mention that while still I own [or have owned,] nearly everything on my list, the A35 van was only at my disposal, never actually mine. ;)
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Oh, a difficult choice: grandmother was a hoarder! I think I'd choose:
1. The photograph album Nana made for me in 1980, containing all the old family photographs, which started me on my researches;
2. The ambrotype of my 4 x great grandparents (which inspired me to research a long-forgotten local industry);
3. The four remaining pages of a family bible, last entry in 1854 (how I wish the whole thing had survived!)
4. The sweetheart badge great great uncle Tom sent to his mother in October 1914, days before he was killed in action.
5. Grandfather's medals from the Great War
6. Great great uncle George's Blackstone concertina, which he took with him to the Western Front (he was killed in action, and his body never identified, but the concertina was sent home)
7. The tortoiseshell mantilla comb which, according to family legend, bad Uncle Bill sent home to his mother after he'd run away to America.
8. A Victorian inlaid wooden box belonging to my great great grandmother
9. A Victorian wooden needlecase presumed to have belonged to great great grandmother
10. An Irish bog-oak pincushion bought by Nana on her honeymoon in Ireland, and therefore firmly dated to 1924
The last three are still used regularly by me as I volunteer as an embroideress at a local historic property.
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These are my ten objects.
1. Certificate from the local Agricultural Committee given to my gr. gr. grandfather in 1841, along with £4, for bringing up 9 children with but little parochial relief.
2. Great grandfather's naval service papers from 1853 to 1874, parchment originals.
3. His long service and good conduct medal.
4. A framed wool embroidery of a ship, worked by great grandfather.
5. Sampler worked by great grandmother, age 10, in 1855.
6. Collection of carpentry tools belonging to grandfather and gr. grandfather.
7. A yellow rose, brought from my childhood home, which had been with the family since the early 1900s.
8. 2 school writing books belonging to my mother and my great aunt.
9. Her passport and the letters my mother wrote from a trip round India in 1937, with her employers.
10. The paraffin lamp which stood on the living room table through my mother's childhood. (Still used by me in power cuts!)
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1. A shovel half in a pile of dirt for the ag-labs
2. A selection of vegetables to highlight my award winning grandparents and Ggrandparents, but to also show that the knowledge of the ag-labs gets passed on
3. A piece of tartan
4. A Cornish pasty
5. A bag of potatos for my Irish ancestors- the impetus behind their emigration
6. Picture of a War Memorial for all those sons who sacrificed a life for their new country
7. Aussie Rules Football , for how the sporting life pervades our lines
8. A piece of pinus radiata
9. A picture of my nannas 70th birthday with all her family and grandchildren and ggrandchildren around her
10. A computer. To show how I have found my family but also how future generations will keep in touch
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What a great idea. Can we include items that we would have known and cherished in a past life? Probably not as those were mostly different families and all over the place.
I could pick so much from my own life and that of parents and grandparents and great aunts etc., but I think I'll look around and see what I have that represents some part of an ancestor's life. So far I've put aside a Miners Lamp, A Weaver's shuttle, a figure of a Miner kneeling made out of Welsh Coal, an Austrian Beer mug with hinged lid, a Candle Stick and Thimble.
However I can't help but think about some ancestors who owned little more than ten objects and thought reminded me of everything that my 6 x Great grandmother Eleanor Grant owned after her husband my 6 x great grandfather John Grant died in or before 1722.
Imprimis – means ‘Firstly’
'His purse & apparel', '2 cows & 2 calfs, & sheep,
'In Hay & Straw',
'One Plow, & Harrow, & Blades,'
'One Shovel & Mattock & Crow Axe & fork & Iron..' But what is the last word on that line?
'One wheelbarrow, scythe, rakes, & pick fork'.
House
'One Chest, One Cupbord, One Cheese Press, & wooden ware
'One Brass Pan & Pewter, 2 Iron kettles',
'One fire = Iron tongs, Crow frying pan, pottery?, bread bin'.
‘One Lead Blackstone Smoothing Iron & heaters.’
Parlour
'2 beds, bedding & Chest'
Chamber,
'One coffer, 2 spinning wheels, 2 chairs?, 2 ....?, 2 stools
'In meal & Corn sacks',
'In earthen pots, bottles, wiskatter, & all other Husliemonts.
From Veeblevort on Rootschat:
“The OED provides wiskett as being a northern dialect word with a
Scandinavian root, for basket.
Huslement is provided as tools, or utensils, or equipment or furniture
of a household nature.”
Malcolm
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1. Miners lamp for three generations of miners
2. My great grandmother wedding ring
3. Two white dog ornaments that have been passed down the generations and I have full history of who has owned them
4. My great grandmother dressing table set
5. My grandmother's aunt's dressing table set
6. My grandfathers Second World War pictures from Palestine
7. Pictures from the family bible entries
8. My grandmother written account of her childhood and that of her family and her husband's
9. All of my family photos
10. My children's photos and memorabilia as they are the next generation.
Apart from the actual family bible which is in Australia with the eldest son of that family line either my sister or I still have every object listed. They are on display as they represent our family history
Regards panda
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I am so glad I found this thread.
I really enjoy reading the lists that pop up from time to time.
:)
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DavidG02
I am curious to know why the piece of Monterey pine? [Pinus radiata.] :o
Malcolm33
How fabulous to have found a will from that long ago!!
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DavidG02
I am curious to know why the piece of Monterey pine? [Pinus radiata.] :o
I wondered about that too. P. radiata has had a role in my life, but a souvenir piece wouldn't be very welcome as I seem to be allergic to just about every part of it! Otherwise it's a pretty ordinary conifer.
Carol
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Malcolm33
How fabulous to have found a will from that long ago!!
Yes that administration on behalf of my 6 times greats was a fantastic find and not just because of the age but it really gives us all a good look at what it must have been like in a home so soon after the Stewarts, and best of all we can more or less read it.
I've got other Wills from the 1600's by Draffan's who may be related but almost impossible to read as they are not just in Secretariat hand but Scots English Secretariat writing. There are lessons for reading it on line, but still difficult. I was very fortunate in getting help from an expert in reading Scots Secretariat but even he couldn't make out some words.
As for Eleanor Grant and her son William they are both mentioned a number of times in Clegg's diary and listed in Chinley Chapel Seating payments from 1734 onwards.
Malcolm
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What we are seeing in this discussion are objects mostly related to one's own immediate family and rarely including something farther back than a great grandparent.
It would be good if we knew more about ancestors living in say the 18th, 17th, 16th centuries and even much farther back. So what I would like to do myself is separate immediate family objects from ancestral objects going back in time. At my late age I can't see myself jetting off to search out such items in Antique shops but at least I can throw the idea out to everyone else who might be so fortunate.
Most families will have ancestors who were agricultural labourers or being part of the Industrial Revolution and all that entailed. So Sickles, Scythes, Mining implements, weaving tools and tenter hooks could all be on many a list. What makes it interesting is when we seek out objects that meant a lot at one time, but are scarcely known or thought about today.
In my own childhood as I think back there were all kinds of things in every house that we never see today - like coal scuttles, the old roller mangles for the weekly washing and the wooden dolly's to turn and twist the washing. Even an old iron where you could put hot coals inside, bed warmers, candle sticks. I do have a cast iron boot cleaner which I suppose is quite a relic these days. Another common household necessity was a shoe and boot Last for everyone had to mend their own boots. I had one until only recently.
Great Grandad was a Game Keeper as well as an agricultural labourer - if only I had that gamekeepers hat he is holding, or one or two of the symbols of his calling attached to his uniform.
We don't have to look far back into the past to find objects that a modern generation would find quite strange today. Dad was an electrician but times were hard in the early 1930's and he had to go to Norfolk to find work with the East Anglian Supply Company. That meant putting up poles and fixing the power lines. So he had to use irons to climb the poles and then a blow torch to do cable jointing below ground. During the war he was considered essential to the war effort and so had to work with industrial electricity at Acton Bolt. But after the War he got work first of all in the film studios, and then on airfield lighting. That meant pole climbing again and he took me with him one day, so I saw him use the iron spikes and how he used them to get a foothold as he went up, helped by a big leather belt that went around the pole and himself. Now where would one find iron spikes and such climbing belts today?
Gas Mask, Fire Watching Helmet and a lady's helmet for duty at Air Raid Posts which were quite different. We had those for years but eventually they got tossed out.
Grandad was a Marker at Consett Iron Company. His job was to mark out sheets of hot steel plates for cutting according to orders being met. He had to walk on to the Plates still extremely hot and out of the Rolling Mills and chalk where they had to be cut. He couldn't have worn ordinary clogs or steel tipped boots. They must have had special clogs for that work. Someone on the Consett Heritage facebook pages may know.
But what would one keep to remember gt.grandparents who were Pudlers? Possibly Slag?
One gt.gt.grandfather had a Pub and that would mean getting hold of brew tub - that could be a very happy exercise.
So such a second list of ancestral objects would be something if it had a number of items that invited questions and then painting a picture of the way we once lived.
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Just thought of something else that was so important when I was young, a Stone Hot Water Bottle. On a freezing cold winters night, high up on the edge of the northern Pennines where the Wind coming in from the North Sea and Arctic is made of ice that stone bottle freshly filled with boiling water from the kettle standing on a hob over the open fire was so essential.
So had a search on the net and there must be thousands still around. How I remember that knob on the end to save getting burnt from the hot stone. But there are some among the images I've never seen before - https://www.google.com.au/search?q=stone+hot+water+bottles&rls=com.microsoft:en-GB:IE-Address&rlz=1I7PLXB_enAU652&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwju2-71parUAhUJhbwKHToeDJ0QsAQIJA&biw=1239&bih=575
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DavidG02
I am curious to know why the piece of Monterey pine? [Pinus radiata.] :o
I wondered about that too. P. radiata has had a role in my life, but a souvenir piece wouldn't be very welcome as I seem to be allergic to just about every part of it! Otherwise it's a pretty ordinary conifer.
Carol
Pinus Radiata is the tree of the South East of South Australia. Wherever I see a Pine Tree , and especially Radiata , I am taken back to school holidays. I think of a cricket bat made from a chunk, I think of kitchen fires started by me carrying in blocks of pine , the clink of the blocks as they are stacked, the weight and the smell.
I think of my maternal grandparents, and all my uncles and aunts and their stories. I think of friends.
My objects are about invoking memory. :)
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Just remembered: after my father's death, clearing out his large garage/workshop, found no fewer than six old blowlamps, the sorts that plumbers use. OH declared they would all be death traps if anyone was silly enough to use them - so into the skip they went. Other week, browsing in an antiques place - yes, ones no nicer, with inflated price tags!!
I dislike seeing tools being used as mere ornaments, especially if they're capable of use. Old planes often are used like that, and often they could easily be put into good working order.
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Thank you DavidG02 for sharing your connection with the pines. I get a nostalgic buzz from any wood shavings because my Dad was a carpenter and did lots of DIY at home.
Meanwhile I'm struggling to come up with more than three objects that I actually own :(
Carol
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What a great topic and superb items on the lists and I have enjoyed reading them.....I will have to get a list together.
Carol
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1 Dad's Watch given to him by my mother.
2 Mothers engagement & wedding rings
3 Farm maps (six inch to a mile)
4 Two bar electric fire given to parents as a wedding present
5 Dinner plate bought by my father before he got married. 1953
6 Paternal grand parent wedding photograph 1914
7 Maternal grand parents photos c 1910
8 Delph cooking pot c 1900
9 Builders measure Grandfathers
10 Memoriam cards and letter written during World War 2
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Isn't it funny how often old tools "hang on" to appear in these lists? - Just been using my grandfather's old spirit level to level a filing cabinet ( the floor's not level) after I'd slipped a length of thin MDF under the front. Quite forgotten it was my father's, and before it, belonged to my grandfather, until I noticed his initials branded into it.
Also today used a small turned wooden box that was my grandmother's button box to find a replacement shirt button to SEW onto a shirt.