Heirlooms

[Intrepidation]

So I have this floor lamp with a end table built into it. Secured by the shaft is casting of an eagle the rests on the table. I remember when I was younger we had it in our living room, but it eventually ended up in the attic when we didn't have a place for it (or it broke, I don't remember). I always thought it was neat, and decided that I wanted to take it with us for my apartment. The lamp shade was gone an the socket for the bulb looked like it was in rough shape, as well as the housing being gone and the wiring being old. However, since they sell kits that let you replace the guts in your old lamp with new ones, I figured I could fix it.

In all the madness that was moving day I almost didn't bring it with us, but on one of the last trips to the old house I grabbed it.

So a couple weeks ago I finally got around to replacing the electrical parts with new ones and buying it a new lamp shade. I'm very pleased with how it turned out, and happy to have a lamp in the living area now.

Now I knew this lamp was fairly old, since we had it when I was little. I figured it was about the same age as me, maybe a few years older. However, tonight I was watching some home movies of my mom's family when she was a kid, and what do I see in their living room but the very same lamp, as well as a corner hutch that my aunt has at her place. So this lamp is at least 45 years old.

I dunno, I think it's pretty neat to see something from my parent's childhood home be put to use again half a century later. Almost left it behind to be trashed, but glad I didn't.

Anyone else have furniture or other things besides cars or jewelry that's been in the family for a long time?

[Drew Dowdell]

Oh, I have lots.

My entire first floor is covered in braided rugs that were hand made by my grandmother in the 50s. They are priceless to me. I grew up playing on those rugs. The lines on them were the highways for my hotwheels cars to drive on.

I have some of my great grandfather's furniture and a clock of his. I have numerous articles that he collected from his round the world travels.

[daves87rs]

Not a huge fan of rug, but I like those!

[Intrepidation]

Those are very nice rugs!

[SAmadei]

My family largely saves everything... but our most important heirlooms are various things made by my mother's parents. My grandfather was quite the woodworker, and we have a couple rocking chairs he made... my sister has a little kitchenette he made. He also made a set of lamps with a spiral, that to this day, I have NO idea how he made with his lathe.

But the most important item I have is a traffic light he made for me when I was a budding car crazy child, which included a timer system so it would automagically change. It needs a bit of restoration... and so I opened it up the switch controls one time, and I realized his built _everything_ from scratch... no radio shack switches or timers here. Its so old tech, I'm not sure I can fix it up.

My grandparents had those kind of hand made rugs, too. I'm not sure what became of them... my Aunt probably has them. And yes, I drove little cars around the 'laps' as a child.

[A Horse With No Name]

Oh, I have lots.

My entire first floor is covered in braided rugs that were hand made by my grandmother in the 50s. They are priceless to me. I grew up playing on those rugs. The lines on them were the highways for my hotwheels cars to drive on.

I have some of my great grandfather's furniture and a clock of his. I have numerous articles that he collected from his round the world travels.

Beautiful house, olds, I've always loved older homes. Also, I just used that same color green in my home. You and Albert have great taste!

Chris

[balthazar]

I have a pin my G-G-GF (1838-1927) made from a silver dollar- he smoothed & engraved his initials on one side. Have some glass buttonhole studs a G-G-uncle made (1856-1943)- there were a number of glassblowers in that branch of the family.

Furniture-wise I don't really have much from the family- it's more trinket things, but I do have a lot of old things in general. On topic: one is a cast iron/steel floor lamp that came out of my brother's house about 10-12 years ago. I would guess it is from the '20s. Took it all apart, cleaned all the metal up & repainted it, rewired it but kept the old, tarnished, brass swivel so you can angle the shade.

I like the old stuff...

[§carlet §wordfish]

Our house. My Grandfather built it in the 30's from blueprints from Sears-Roebuck. It's not too fancy, but it's sturdy and spacious.

[Camino LS6]

Oh, I have lots.

My entire first floor is covered in braided rugs that were hand made by my grandmother in the 50s. They are priceless to me. I grew up playing on those rugs. The lines on them were the highways for my hotwheels cars to drive on.

I have some of my great grandfather's furniture and a clock of his. I have numerous articles that he collected from his round the world travels.

I'm also a veteran of the braided rug highway!

I have some things from my family's past that are precious to me as well.

I treasure my Grandfather's cups that he won racing his horse and a newspaper clipping mentioning one of his victories. His horse was named "Whatnot" as he did double-duty as both a race horse and work horse.

Some of the things I have are worth a couple of bucks maybe, but even through all of the financial agony I've been dealing with, they are not for sale.

Some things just matter more than money.

And some things matter even when they have no monetary value.

They tie us to our past with texture and solidity you can feel with your hands - and that is something special.

[Intrepidation]

Here it is from the home video, I forget the year, sometime in the 60's.

And here it is today, with new hardware and shade.

[Sixty8panther]

I've got a few antiques... pictures are worth a thousand words so I'll post a few pics. as I come across & photograph them.

If I could have ONE heirloom from my family back in Slovakia it would be my Grandfathers' 1930s Mercedes Benz Light Duty truck. He bought it at a time when there was no such thing as a "car loan" so he had to mortgage his house that he built with his OWN two hands (with the help of his family). Then WWII started and a dark cloud descended upon Europe.

From 1939 to 1945 the Germans came and went but NEVER bothered my family. Our town was lucky to not have been targeted by any hostility by the SS or otherwise.... the typical German foot soldier was polite & did not harass the Slovakian population.

The in the spring of 1945 the Russian (Soviet) Communist soldiers drove the Germans across our valley and a "RED" (Soviet) soldier stopped my grandfather and stole his truck at gunpoint.

My grandfather was a civilian, he shipped fruits & vegetables from the local farms to the big cities. He was nothing more than a 1930s European version of some independant trucker here in the USA today with a Peterbilt 388 & a load of Apples or Lettuce or Watermellons. And yet he was told he would be shot if he didn't surrender his personal property to the "Liberating Communists".

Saddly, this was just the begining of the cold, cruel, tyranical rule or the Soviet Communists over our country.

If that truck still exists (very unlikely) and if I had the financial means I'd pay ANYTHING to have it back!

[ocnblu]

The first thing my (dad's side of the) family bought in the USA when they got off the boat in Baltimore from Germany in the 1840's, a chair. First kitchen table my dad's parents bought as husband and wife. A snake plant that belonged to my mother's mother's mother. And more.

[Intrepidation]

I've got a few of my grandfather's items from WWII where he served on Iwo Jima, including his helmet, a tank periscope, a military flashlight, a 30mm magazine, and a ammunition box.

I've also got a diary from one of my ancestors from the revolutionary area that gives the name of the person who fired "the shot heard round the world" (the first shot fired at the Battle of Lexington).

[XP715]

Virtually nothing; my father's family is about as unsentimental as they come. Everybody was always trading up for bigger and better and newer, and what was left that was old was thrown in closets and basements and attics until it was either sold, given away to strangers, or very unceremoniously thrown out. I plucked a family Bible from 1882 from the trash at my grandmother's house that held literally centuries of family history in the section where people write in the dates of births, deaths, marriages, etc. She thought nobody wanted it. Now it sits safely on a shelf at my parents house. What little else was saved was done so by my father (an old Governor Winthrop desk which he still uses daily to do his bills and such, my grandfather's dog tags and pins from the Korean War, a few boxes of old photographs, etc.) My mother's family, while not terribly sentimental, did save a few pieces from past generations. I'm lucky enough to have an old milk pitcher that my great grandmother brought with her when she came over from Ireland in the early 1920's (was an antique then) that I proudly display in my kitchen. My mother also has a few of her tea sets, real 100+ year-old English bone china that came from my great grandfather's family (he came from England around the same time she came from Ireland and gave them to her). She also has two one hundred year-old dressers that used to belong to them as well that just sit in the attic and collect dust. Also, she has my great grandmother's picture ID badge from the armory in Watertown, MA where she made bullets during WWII. You guys that have rooms full of stuff that belonged to your ancestors are lucky; what I will end up with from both sides of the family, excluding what will come from my own parents who actually care about preserving things, would barely fill one shelf.

Edited May 1, 2010 by XP715

[knightfan26917]

Anyone else have furniture or other things besides cars or jewelry that's been in the family for a long time?

Oh

my

yes.

We have some furniture that my Dad's grandparents had, some that my Mom's grandparents had, and on and on. We also have some old family knick knacks, an old-fashioned ice cream churn/maker, some wash boards, an old record player (that plays the CYLINDERS...and STILL works)....etc.

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"There's a place for memories" ... Gary Morris ... 'Don't Look Back'